History of aspirin Hermann Hildebrandt). In 1894, the young chemist Felix Hoffmann joined the pharmaceutical group. Dreser, Eichengrün and Hoffmann would be the key figures in the development of acetylsalicylic acid as the drug Aspirin (though their respective roles have been the subject of some contention). In 1897, Hoffmann started working to find a less irritating substitute for salicylic acid. It is generally accepted that he turned to this idea because his father was suffering the side effects of taking sodium salicylate for rheumatism. In 1853, Charles Frédéric Gerhardt had published the first methods to prepare acetylsalicylic acid. In the course of his
Moronic acid Moronic acid Moronic acid (3-oxoolean-18-en-28-oic acid) is a natural triterpene. Moronic acid can be extracted from "Rhus javanica", a sumac plant traditionally believed to hold medicinal applications. The molecule has also been extracted from Mistletoe ("Phoradendron reichenbachianum"). Bevirimat, a derivative of the related triterpenoid betulinic acid, is under development as an anti-HIV drug; however, moronic acid has shown better antiviral profiles "in vitro" than bevirimat. A particular moronic acid derivative showed potent anti-HIV activity with EC values of 0.0085 μM against NL4-3, 0.021 μM against PI-R (a multiple protease inhibitor resistant strain), and 0.13 μM against FHR-2 (an HIV strain