History of aspirin History of aspirin The history of aspirin (IUPAC name acetylsalicylic acid ) begins with its synthesis and manufacture in 1899. Before that, salicylic acid had been used medicinally since antiquity. Medicines made from willow and other salicylate-rich plants appear in clay tablets from ancient Sumer as well as the Ebers Papyrus from ancient Egypt. Hippocrates referred to their use of salicylic tea to reduce fevers around 400 BC, and were part of the pharmacopoeia of Western medicine in classical antiquity and the Middle Ages. Willow bark extract became recognized for its specific effects on fever, pain and inflammation in the
Lune of Hippocrates circle. He proved that the lune bounded by the arcs labeled "E" and "F" in the figure has the same area as triangle "ABO". This afforded some hope of solving the circle-squaring problem, since the lune is bounded only by arcs of circles. Heath concludes that, in proving his result, Hippocrates was also the first to prove that the area of a circle is proportional to the square of its diameter. Hippocrates' book on geometry in which this result appears, "Elements", has been lost, but may have formed the model for Euclid's "Elements". Hippocrates' proof was preserved through the "History