Who where the first people to use acetylsalicylic acid?

Answer 1

The first country (people) to use aspirin was in Germany in the 19th century. Several physicians from Great Britain, France and Italy did experiments and finally came up with the formula.

Answer 2

Salicylic acid has been known for thousands of years in its naturally appearing form in herbs and trees, and used to treat many conditions as far back as the ancient Greeks, and Egyptians before them, before 2,500 B.C.. Acetylsalicylic acid (in its common form today, known as ASPIRIN,) was developed in a stable form by Felix Hoffmann in Germany by the Bayer Company; but that is only part of the story.

Here is some information about the development of aspirin through the years.

Friedrich Bayer was born in 1825, the only son in a family of six children. His father was a weaver and dyer, and Bayer followed in his footsteps. In 1848, he opened his own dye business, which became very successful. In the past, all dyes had come from organic materials, but in 1856 coal tar dyes were discovered. Bayer and Friedrich Weskott, a master dyer, saw great potential in coal tar, and in 1863 they formed Friedrich Bayer et Compagnie to manufacture the dyes.

Hoffmann's Aspirin
Bayer died on May 6, 1880, while the company was still in the fabric dye business. The company went on to employ chemists to come up with innovative dyes and products and in 1897 that's exactly what one of the chemists, Felix Hoffmann, did. While experimenting with a waste product of one of the dye components to find relieve for his father's rheumatism, Hoffmann chemically synthesised a stable form of salicylic acid powder. The compound became the active ingredient in a pharmaceutical wonder product: Aspirin. The title was named "a" from acetyl, and "spir" from the spirea plant, meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria, also known as Spiraea ulmaria), the source of salicin.

Already in use for the 3500 years
However, Hoffmann did not discover "aspirin." He "rediscovered" it after studying experiments on acetylsalicylic acid made 40 years earlier by French chemist Charles Gergardt. In 1837, Gergardt produced good results, but the procedure was difficult and time consuming. He decided that it was not practical, and set it aside. But Gerhardt knew quite well about potential cures of acetylsalicylic acid because it had been proclaimed for more than 3 500 years!

In early-1800, German Egyptologist Georg Ebers bought papyruses from an Egyptian street vendor. The Ebers Papyrus, as they are known, contained a collection of 877 medicinal recipes from 2500 BC and recommended an infusion of dried myrtle leaves for rheumatic and back pain. Even in 400 BC Hippocrates of Kos, the father of all doctors, recommended a tea extract from the bark of the willow tree for fever, pain, and labour. The active substance in this juice, which does in fact ease pain, is, as we know today, salicylic acid. In China and Asia, and among North American Indians and the Hottentots of South Africa the beneficial effect of plants containing salicylic acid was known from early times.

The breakthrough
Although it relieved pain, the willow bark extract, salicylic acid, caused severe stomach and mouth irritation. Hoffmann's breakthrough came on 10 August 1897 when he produced the first 100% chemically pure form of acetylsalicylic acid, thus without the free salicylic acid. On 6 March 1899, Bayer registered Aspirin as a trademark. Not without a challenge, though. In fact, initially it received trade certificates only in the US. In England and Germany, other companies challenged the patents, citing their own research. Hoffmann's written evidence prevailed, and when he retired in 1928, Aspirin was known throughout the world. He, however, lived unrecognised until his death on 8 February 1946 in Switzerland.