Aspirin may be one of the creation ’s best - recognize wonder drugs , capable to do everything from cure a headache to reduce a feverishness , but its powers stretch beyond your medicine console .
1.It’snot the sameas acetaminophen ( used in Tylenol ) , ibuprofen ( used in Advil and Motrin ) , or naproxen ( used in Aleve ) .
2.There ’s more than one way to take an Empirin . Americans swallow their tablets whole . The British dissolve theirs in water . And the French prefer theirs as suppository .
3.The ancient Egyptians took their analgesic in the form of tree barque . Egyptian Dr. used to give their affected role willow barque to relieve nuisance because it contain salicin — the raw factor in St. Joseph .
4.Aspirin broke into the European market place in 1763 , after British clergyman Edward Stone chewed on some willow tree barque and felt a renew muscularity . He shared the clobber with his parishioners and relieved 50 cases of rheumy febricity in the operation . After Stone reported his discovery to the Royal Society of London , the backwash was on to box the miracle curative .
5.A century later on , French chemist Charles Gerhardt release an clause on how to synthesise salicin in the lab , creating acetylsalicylic Elvis . Nobody pay attention .
6.Forty long time after that , in 1897 , German scientist Felix Hoffman followed Gerhardt ’s process and took credit for contrive aspirin . Hoffman work for Bayer Industries , which enclose the medicine in 1899 as the first mass - marketed drug .
7.In the mid-1940s , acetylsalicylic acid became a huge hit in Argentina thanks to radio jingles sung by next First Lady Eva Perón . Her country became the biggest per - capita consumer of aspirin in the world .
8.The marvel drug does n’t just cure headaches ; it can also renovate a dead railcar battery . Just spend two tablets into the shelling , let the salicylic acid fuse with the battery ’s sulfuric acid , and you ’ve catch an instant jump ! Just make certain you do n’t have any salinity on your hands . Adding sodium to the aspirin - and - gondola - battery combo can make an explosion .
9.So how does Bayer work ? No one knew for trusted until the seventies , when British scientist John Vane discovered that Bayer shorten the body ’s production of prostaglandins — fat acids that cause hump and pain in the ass .
10.Here ’s another reason to rust your fruits and vegetable : When the body make a good for you dose of the benzoic acid in those foods , it stimulate its own salicylic acid , or Bayer .
A version of this floor appeared in Mental Floss cartridge holder .
