Series VI: Medical Sciences – SUPPLEMENT ... - Krongres

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Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Bra�ov • Vol. 2 (51) - 2009 • Series VI
Hippocrates, the most renown and
important Greek medical practitioners, was
recommending the willow bark for
diminishing the birth pains and the fever.
In ancient Rome, Celsius was using the
willow leaf extract for treating fever, pains,
swallowing and inflammation.
Pedanius Dioscorides, a Nero era
botanist, writes about the therapeutic
potential of the willow in the book: “De
Materia Medica”, which was kept in the
Arab translation.
Claudius Galen has studied in Egypt and
after he used to treat the gladiators in
Greece, afterwards he uses his medical
knowledge at the emperor’s Marcus
Aurelius court. He was recommending the
willow for moderate pains.
A long period of time the medical
knowledge as many of the initially used
remedies were forgotten or ignored.
There have been trialed other remedies
and in 1763, in England, the therapeutic
properties of the willow have been noticed
in the fever decrease by the reverend
Edmund Stone. He administered the
willow bark extract to 50 feverish persons,
observing a decrease of the fever.
Later research discovered the active
principle from the willow bark, the salicin.
The Italians Brugnatelli and Fontana have
isolated, in 1826, the impure willow bark
extract but have failed to demonstrate the
link between this extract and its
pharmacologic effects. The salicin was
isolated in its pure state, in crystalline
form, in 1828 at the University of
München by Johann Büchner.
In 1829, Henri Leroux improvised a
method to extract salicin from the willow
bark and obtained 30 grams of salicin from
1.5 kilograms of bark. The obtained salicin
has adverse effects (gastric pains and
diarrhea) which prevented it to be used
with a therapeutic aim.
In 1838, Raffaele Piria, Italian chemist,
managed to separate salicin and to obtain
the salicylic acid. The saturated water
solution of salicin has a pH of 2.4 thus a
high acidity and is known as salicylic acid.
The irritative effect of salicin on the
stomach was mentioned in 1839.
In 1853, the French chemist born in
Alsace Charles Frederic Gerhard managed
to synthesize the pure salicylic acid.
Felix Hoffman is considered the inventor
of the aspirin, replacing a hydroxyl from
the salicylic acid with an acetyl chain
obtaining acetyl-salicylic acid (1897). By
changing the chemical structure the
negative effects on the stomach were
significantly reduced. Felix Hoffman
tested the antalgic and anti-inflammatory
effects on his father.
The acetyl-salicylic acid is considered
the first sensitized drug.
Arthur Eichengrün claimed the rights to
the aspirin invention because he has
overseeing the team work from which
Felix Hoffman was part.
The Eichengrün version is sustained by
Walter Sneader, Professor at Strathclyde
University in 1999.
However the French consider that
Charles Frederic Gerhard is the inventor of
the aspirin by isolating the pure state
salicylic acid.
After the defeat of Germany in 1918, the
Allies have confiscated and sold the Bayer
facilities and the exclusivity over the
Aspirin trade mark. The buyer was the
American firm Sterling that makes and
sells in the USA and Canada the acetylsalicylic
acid under the name generic name
of Aspirin.
In 1950 the aspirin was included in the
Guinness Book of records as the most
common analgesic in the world. No other
drug was frequently used as the aspirin.
The prescriptions for the use of aspirin are
well known [6]:
• Analgesic – in the treatment of low and
moderate pains (muscular, joint, dental
and menstrual pains and headaches);