Aspirin's Ancient Connection

Just as we owe most of our medical knowledge to the physicians of ancient times, there are some medicines in use today that are directly taken from ancient medicine. One such ancient medicine that is still used today, albeit in a different form, is aspirin.

Aspirin is arguably the most commonly used drug in the world today. It has appeared in the Guinness Book of Records as the most frequently sold pain reliever in the world and is also “one of the most endurably successful commercial products of all time." Its use ranges from simple pain relief to heart attack and stroke prevention.

The active ingredient of Aspirin is the medicinal compound salicin, which is refined from willow bark, and that's the ancient connection. Willow bark was used extensively by the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians for pain relief, and later advocated by Hippocrates in Greece and Pliny the Elder in Ancient Rome. Willow bark continued to be used as a pain reliever in its natural form until the mid-1800s when it was refined into salicin, and then in the early 20th century turned into acetylsalicylic acid by Bayer and marketed as “the wonder drug” aspirin.

Another interesting fact about Aspirin is that it was used extensively during the Spanish Flu, the great pandemic of 1918. There was some recent news about aspirin being used to combat blood clot complications from covid-19 too.

Sources:

https://www.mdlinx.com/article/ancient-medicines-and-procedures-still-used-today/lfc-4453

https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/aspirin-turn-of-the-century-miracle-drug

https://www.healthline.com/health/willow-bark-natures-aspirin#benefits

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20201105/researchers-say-aspirin-may-help-covid-patients

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