Summary
Every home has a bottle of aspirin tucked away in a cupboard or medicine cabinet. We take the pills for everything from hangovers to back pain, but how often do we actually stop to think about the drug itself? Aspirin gave birth to the modern pharmaceutical industry as we know it today and it may just be the miracle drug of our age, says Professor Peter Elwood
A WRITER recently gave the title to a report in a medical journal 'Thanks Hippocrates for the first miracle drug'.See the full content of this document
Extract
The Evolving Story of Aspirin, the First Miracle Drug
In this he was referring to a recommendation made by a Greek physician in 300 BC, that women should make a brew of willow leaves and take it to relieve the pain of childbirth.
Hippocrates did not know it, but the leaves and the bark of the willow tree contain chemicals known as salicylates.Salicylates are found throughout the plant world and many of the herbal remedies which have been used since antiquity depend on these substances for their beneficial effect.Aspirin belongs to this same group of substances, and its full name - acetyl salicylic acid - indicates thi...See the full content of this document
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