Well it’s the weekend, and as you reach for an aspirin to help shake off the effects of the fun from last night, what you may not know is that aspirin’s active ingredient, acetylsalicylic acid, is a synthetically made petroleum chemical.
Aspirin is the U.S.’s most commonly used drug, and has existed in various forms for centuries. Historically, plant extracts containing salicylic acid were used to treat the same complaints that aspirin does.
As time went on, European chemists began experimenting with different methods of creating a synthetic form of the acid, and in 1897, und the direction of German chemist Felix Hoffmann, the Bayer company trademarked the name Aspirin and begin to sell it worldwide.
Bayer held trademarks for both aspirin and heroin until the end of World War I, when war reparations as part of the Treaty of Versaille removed the Trademark in several countries and made aspirin and heroin generic names.
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