Aspirin is the common name for acetylsalicylic
acid. Its name comes from spirea, a plant that
yields salicylic acid. The willow tree also
produces the same acid. The bark of willows
was used by ancient Romans and North American Indians
as a medicine for pain and fever.
German chemists first made acetylsalicylic acid in 1853. It was further developed at the Bayer chemical laboratories at Dusseldorf and it was then named aspirin. |