The discovery of aspirin : a reappraisal

Sneader, Walter (2000) The discovery of aspirin : a reappraisal. BMJ, 321 (7276). pp. 1591-1594. ISSN 0959-8138

[thumbnail of Sneader-BMJ2000-discovery-aspirin-reappraisal]
Preview
 Text. Filename: Sneader_BMJ2000_discovery_aspirin_reappraisal.pdf
Final Published Version
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 logo
Download (140kB)| Preview

    Abstract

    The discovery of aspirin is customarily said to have resulted from Felix Hoffmann's rheumatic father encouraging his son to produce a medicine devoid of the unpleasant effects of sodium salicylate. Hoffmann, a chemist in the pharmaceutical laboratory of the German dye manufacturer Friedrich Bayer & Co in Elberfeld, consulted the chemical literature and came across the synthesis of acetylsalicylic acid and then prepared the first sample of pure acetylsalicylic acid on 10 August 1897. This was marketed in 1899 under the registered trademark of Aspirin. This account of the discovery first appeared in 1934 as a footnote in a history of chemical engineering written by Albrecht Schmidt, a chemist who had recently retired from IG Farbenindustrie—the organisation into which F Bayer & Co had been incorporated in 1925.

    • Item type:Article
      ID code:65107
      Dates:
      Date
      Event
      22 December 2000
      Published
      Keywords:anti-inflammatory agents, Non-Steroidal, aspirin, chemistry, pharmaceutical , Germany, 19th century, 20th century, biography, historical article, Pharmacy and materia medica, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics(all)
      Subjects:Medicine > Pharmacy and materia medica
      Department:Faculty of Science > Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences
      Depositing user: Pure Administrator
      Date deposited:10 Aug 2018 08:32
      Last modified:23 Sep 2021 06:53
      URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/65107
    CORE (COnnecting REpositories)