60 Fun Facts About Aspirin

Aspirin is the genericised trademark for which chemical compound?

It is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug that also suppresses platelet function.

Which tree's bark contains salicin, an aspirin precursor used for at least 2,400 years?

Salicin is metabolised in the gut into salicylic acid.

Which chemist first made aspirin's active compound in 1853?

It took another 50 years, mostly at Bayer, to establish the structure and make it in a pure, stable form.

Which German company named and launched Aspirin in 1899?

It was then a dye and drug firm; its cross logo followed in 1904.

Which Bayer chemist is officially credited with first making the drug in a pure, stable form in 1897?

His colleague Arthur Eichengrün later claimed Hoffmann had merely followed his research plan.

Which Bayer scientist claimed in 1949 that aspirin would never have reached the market without him?

Historian Walter Sneader supported his claim; Bayer countered that he and Hoffmann held equal positions.

Which Bayer pharmacology head first blocked aspirin over fears it weakened the heart?

He was the only one of the three to receive royalties, and his report omitted Hoffmann and Eichengrün entirely.

Which notorious drug did the same Bayer chemist synthesise soon after aspirin, in the same year?

Bayer branded it 'heroin' for the heroic feeling it gave the testers.

The 'spir' in Aspirin comes from Spirsäure, German for salicylic acid derived from which plant?

The plant genus was then Spiraea, now Filipendula; 'a' stands for acetyl and '-in' was a common drug suffix.

What was the runner-up name Bayer considered before settling on 'Aspirin' in January 1899?

Eichengrün argued that 'Eu-' (good) implied an improvement on an older drug, which Bayer wanted to avoid.

Which English chaplain told the Royal Society in 1763 of a tree bark that cured 'ague' fevers?

He had tasted the bark in 1758 and noticed an astringency like Peruvian bark, used against malaria.

Which Italian chemist obtained a more potent acid from the bark extract in 1838 and named it salicylic acid?

German chemist Karl Jacob Löwig then realised his meadowsweet extract was the same acid.

Which Scottish physician reported in The Lancet in 1876 that salicin treated acute rheumatism?

German scientists tried sodium salicylate with less success and worse side effects.

Bayer's systematic drug search was inspired by the success of which 1886 acetanilide fever remedy?

Carl Duisberg's chemists went on to develop Phenacetin and the sedatives Sulfonal and Trional.

Why did Bayer initially market Aspirin only to doctors rather than to the public?

Small packets went to doctors, pharmacists and hospitals in 1899 with encouragement to publish results.

Where did Bayer open its American aspirin factory in 1903 to avoid import duties?

The plant was auctioned off during the First World War along with Bayer's US trademarks.

During WWI, German agents secretly bought surplus phenol for aspirin from which American inventor's factory?

Edison made phenol for phonograph records; the 'Great Phenol Plot' collapsed when a briefcase of documents was seized in 1915.

Which US company bought Bayer's American plant, patents and logo at auction after WWI?

Bayer AG bought the US rights back in 1994 for US$1 billion.

How much did Bayer AG pay in 1994 to regain the US rights to its own name, cross logo and Bayer Aspirin?

The Aspirin trademark remains valid in Canada and much of the world.

Which pandemic of 1918 cemented aspirin's reputation as one of the most powerful drugs of its era?

Some even believed Germans had planted the flu in Bayer aspirin as a war tactic.

Which Australian brand marketed by Nicholas Proprietary became a global aspirin rival?

Alka-Seltzer, a soluble aspirin-bicarbonate mix, also arrived between the wars.

Aspirin's popularity declined after which two rival painkillers arrived in 1956 and 1962?

Tylenol, which did not irritate the stomach, was available without prescription by 1967.

Which California doctor first noticed aspirin's anti-clotting effect in 1950 via patients chewing Aspergum?

Tonsillectomy patients using lots of the aspirin gum were bleeding heavily; he began prescribing daily aspirin.

Which pharmacologist showed in 1971 that aspirin works by blocking prostaglandin production?

He worked with Priscilla Piper at the Royal College of Surgeons.

Which honour did the pharmacologist who discovered aspirin's mechanism share in 1982?

He shared it with Sune Bergström and Bengt Samuelsson.

Aspirin permanently disables which enzyme, unlike ibuprofen and diclofenac which inhibit it reversibly?

It attaches an acetyl group to a serine in the enzyme's active site, a so-called suicide inhibition.

Low-dose aspirin prevents clots by blocking which platelet substance for their 8-9 day life?

That is why it is used to prevent second heart attacks and strokes.

Which statistician's mid-1980s meta-analysis convinced the FDA that aspirin prevents heart attacks?

By the end of the 1980s aspirin was widely used as a preventive.

Why is aspirin not generally recommended for children with viral infections?

The FDA required warning labels on all aspirin from 1986.

Which Australian pathologist first described the syndrome that bears his name in 1963?

Diagnoses fell sharply in the 1980s as aspirin warnings and genetic testing spread.

What ear symptom can high doses of aspirin cause?

Stomach upset is the most common side effect; ulcers and bleeding the more serious ones.

Roughly how many tonnes of aspirin are consumed worldwide each year?

That is 50 to 120 billion pills; it is on the WHO List of Essential Medicines.

Aspirin is made from salicylic acid and which reagent in a classic teaching-lab esterification?

Acetic acid is the by-product; a little sulfuric acid usually acts as catalyst.

What hazard do aspirin tablet factories share with flour mills?

NIOSH recommends an exposure limit of 5 mg per cubic metre.

Which pet animal metabolises aspirin dangerously slowly because it lacks glucuronide conjugates?

Dogs tolerate aspirin better than cats.

Aspirin treats pericarditis, rheumatic fever and which childhood illness that inflames blood vessels?

For pain or fever its effects begin within about 30 minutes.

What did three major 2018 trials find about daily aspirin for over-70s without heart disease?

US cardiology guidelines changed in early 2019 to recommend against it.

Aspirin has been shown to help prevent which disease of the bowel, though the mechanism is unclear?

In 2016 the USPSTF gave low-dose aspirin a grade B recommendation for certain adults aged 50-59.

Bayer's Aspirin patent was upheld in the US but was ineligible in which country, Bayer's own?

The British patent was overturned in 1905; the US patent expired in 1917.

On what date were Bayer's UK aspirin trademarks voided, letting any company use the name?

British phenol was being diverted to explosives, so home production could not meet demand.

Which 1906 US law barred trademarked drugs from the US Pharmacopeia, prompting Bayer's convoluted generic name for ASA?

Bayer listed it as 'monoacetic acid ester of salicylic acid' to keep doctors saying Aspirin.

Which US firm's 1920 challenge to the Aspirin trademark made the name generic?

Soon hundreds of 'aspirin' brands were on sale in the United States.

Which German firm's accidental 1886 fever remedy, a branded acetanilide, kicked off the tar-derived medicine boom?

Kalle's product was branded acetanilide.

Which US government official seized Bayer's American holdings after the US entered the war in 1917?

As alien property custodian, he uncovered Bayer's scheme to hide the stock in a nominally American company.

Ancient physician Hippocrates is said to have used salicylic tea for what purpose around 400 BC?

The claim that he used willow as a painkiller is a modern myth.

Bayer's headquarters is in which German city, founded as a new town in 1930?

The Bayer cross logo, the word BAYER written vertically and horizontally sharing the Y, dates from 1904.

Aspirin appears on which World Health Organization roster of key drugs?

An estimated 40,000 tonnes, or 50 to 120 billion pills, are consumed worldwide every year.

Old aspirin that has absorbed moisture often smells of what?

Hydrolysis breaks the drug back down into salicylic acid and acetic acid, the acid in vinegar.

What dose is commonly sold as 'baby aspirin' in the United States?

It is a quarter of the standard 325 mg US adult tablet; British adult tablets are 300 mg, giving a 75 mg low dose.

Enteric-coated aspirin tablets are designed to dissolve where?

The higher pH there spares the stomach lining, but absorption becomes erratic and bleeding risk is not actually reduced.

Effervescent aspirin tablets typically pair citric and tartaric acids with which fizzing ingredient?

Dropped in water, the reaction disperses the drug rapidly through the solution.

What is the standard adult aspirin tablet size in Britain?

Sizes vary slightly by country; the United States uses 325 mg.

Willow-based remedies appear in Sumerian clay tablets and which ancient Egyptian medical text?

Hippocrates later referred to salicylic tea for fevers around 400 BC.

What unexpected result did the 2018 ASPREE trial of low-dose therapy in the elderly report?

The finding led the USPSTF to question aspirin's use in cancer prevention in 2021.

In April 2022 the USPSTF found a 'small net benefit' from preventive aspirin for which group?

For people over 60 it found no net benefit once bleeding risks were weighed.

From what stage of pregnancy did the FDA in 2020 advise avoiding NSAIDs such as aspirin?

The concern is kidney problems in the unborn baby leading to low amniotic fluid.

What is the mortality rate of chronic aspirin overdose, compared with 2% for a single acute overdose?

Chronic poisoning, from higher-than-normal doses over time, is far more often lethal.

In 1853 Charles Frédéric Gerhardt first made acetylsalicylic acid by treating sodium salicylate with what?

Later chemists worked out the structure and found more efficient routes before Bayer's 1897 synthesis.

Salicylates leave the body mainly via the kidneys as which compound, about 75% of the total?

It forms when salicylic acid is conjugated with glycine in the liver.

A 2025 Cambridge study said aspirin curbs cancer spread by counteracting which T-cell-suppressing protein?

Freed from that suppression, T cells can attack metastatic cancer cells.