Drug Research: Aspirin

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Drug Research: Aspirin What is Aspirin? It is a drug used to reduce pain, fever, and inflammation. Aspirin is also used to prevent heart attacks, strokes, and blood clotting. Acetylsalicylic acid, another name for Aspirin, was synthesized by Felix Hoffmann. It is documented that salicin, a substance found in willow plants can relieve pain. An article from Massachusetts Institute of Technology said that “Chemist in Germany, France and Italy were able to extract salicin, convert it into salicylic acid and purify it for human consumption.” (“Inventor of the Week: Archive.") That was a step towards developing drugs that would help to relieve pain. In 1897, Felix Hoffman combined acetylating salicylic acid with acetic acid and the result of this combination is ASA, known as acetylsalicylic acid or Aspirin. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s article, “Bayer named the product using “A” for acetyl chloride, “spir” for spiraea ulmaria, the latin name for the plant they derived salicylic acid from, and “in” as a popular suffix for medicines.” (“Inventor of the Week: Archive.”) Aspirin was trademarked by Bayer and the drug was provided to physicians in 1899, and physicians can provide the drug to people who need it. The active ingredient in each tablet includes acetylsalicylic acid. The inactive ingredients includes carnauba was, corn starch, hypromellose, powdered cellulose, and triacetin. What is the difference between active and inactive ingredient? The difference is that active ingredient is the one that is responsible for the given effect, and inactive ingredient is added in to make the product lighter or easier to handle by user. So basically, active ingredient is the main ingredient or the main purpose for the development of the drug. As for inactive ingredient, it can be view as ingredient that goes along with the main ingredient, or the

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