Salicylic acid the product with sulfuric acid gives salicylic acid: It can also be prepared by the hydrolysis of aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) or methyl salicylate (oil of wintergreen) with a strong acid or base. Hippocrates, Galen, Pliny the Elder and others knew that willow bark could ease pain and reduce fevers. It was used in Europe and China to treat these conditions. This remedy is mentioned in texts from ancient Egypt, Sumer and Assyria. The Cherokee and other Native Americans used an infusion of the bark for fever and other medicinal purposes. In 2014, archaeologists identified traces of salicylic acid on 7th
Aristolochic acid of aristolochic acid (AA) consumption. BEN is more slowly progressive than the nephritis that is seen in CHN, but is likely caused by low-level AA exposure, possibly from contamination of wheat flour seeds by a plant of the birthwort family, "Aristolochia clematitis". CHN and BEN fall under the umbrella of what is now known as aristolochic acid nephropathy, the prevalent symptom of AA poisoning. A study reported in the Science Translational Medicine journal in October 2017 reported high incidences of liver cancer in Asia, particularly Taiwan, which bore the "well-defined mutational signature" of aristolochic acids. The same link was found