Chemical Structure:
Chemical Formula C9H8O34
Functional Groups: Carboxylic Acid, Ester, Aromatic Group
3D Rendering of Aspirin
Synthesis of Aspirin:
Boiling Point: 136 °C (277 °F)
Melting Point: 140 °C (284 °F)
IUPAC Name
2-Acetoxybenzoic Acid
Bond Angles
1) 120
2)20
3) 109.5
2)20
3) 109.5
Hybridization
All the carbons except CH3 are sp2 .CH 3 is sp3. All the O atoms have lone pairs of electrons.
History
Aspirin was first isolated by Felix Hoffmann, a chemist with the German company Bayer in 1897. Plant extracts, including willow bark and spiraea, of which salicylic acid was the active ingredient, had been known to help alleviate headaches, pains, and fevers since antiquity. The father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, who lived sometime between 460 BC and 377 BC, left historical records describing the use of powder made from the bark and leaves of the willow tree to help these symptoms.Today, aspirin is one of the most widely used medications in the world, with an estimated 40,000 tonnes of it being consumed each year. In countries where Aspirin is a registered trademark owned by Bayer, the generic term is acetylsalicylic acid.
Common Uses
Aspirin is used to relieve pain, fever, and inflammation in various conditions such as lower back and neck pain, the flu, common cold, burns, menstrual pain, headache, migraines, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, sprains and strains, nerve pain, toothache, muscle pain, bursitis (inflammation of a bursa, a fluid-filled sac located around joints and near the bones), and following surgical and dental procedures. Aspirin is also used for rheumatic fever in combination with other medications.
Effects on Human Body
Aspirin should not be taken by people who are allergic to ibuprofen or naproxen,or who have salicylate intolerance or a more generalized drug intolerance to NSAIDs, and caution should be exercised in those with asthma. To its effect on the stomach lining, manufacturers recommend people with peptic ulcers, mild diabetes, or gastritis seek medical advice before using aspirin. Even if none of these conditions is present, the risk of stomach bleeding is still increased when aspirin is taken with alcohol. Children and teens are not supposed to be given Aspirin to control cold or influenza symptoms, because it has been linked with Reye's syndrome. Reye's syndrome, a rare and severe illness characterized by acute encephalopathy and fatty liver, it can occur when children and teens are given aspirin for a fever or other illnesses or infections. People who have a salicylate intolerance may get hives or headaches when taking Aspirin.
Interesting Facts about Aspirin
- In 1950, aspirin was entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the highest-selling drug product.
- Approximately 3,500 scientific articles about aspirin are published per year.
- The number of 50mg aspirin tablets manufactured each year is around 100 billion
- Adding aspirin to water in a vase will make cut flowers last longer. The effect is attributable to salicylic acid, which as a messenger substance plays an important role in plants’ defense systems.
- Before 1904, Bayer sold aspirin to pharmacies as a fine, white powder in bottles. The pharmacists in turn filled 500-milligram portions of the product into paper bags which they then sold to the customers.
- After becoming world famous for developing aspirin, Felix Hoffmann disappeared completely from the public eye on retiring in 1928, emigrating to Switzerland where he lived in seclusion and devoted himself to art history until his death in 1946.
- After aspirin was developed in 1897, it was around 70 years before British scientist Professor Sir John R. Vane made the Nobel Prize winning discovery that it worked by inhibiting prostaglandins (pain messenger substances).
- Aspirin went into space, as part of the on-board medicine kit on all of the Apollo rockets that NASA sent to the moon – both the orbital lunar flights in 1968/69 and the seven moon landings from 1969 to 1972 (Apollo 11 to Apollo 17).
- Aspirin was used as currency during times of hyperinflation in South America last century, when money became next to worthless. According to reports, it was standard practice at that time to hand out a few tablets of the analgesic as change as it held its value considerably better than the actual currency.