Arthur Eichengrün the invention of aspirin in 1897. Impure acetylsalicylic acid (ASA, the active compound of aspirin) had been synthesized already in 1853 by French chemist Charles Frédéric Gerhardt; the 1897 process developed at Bayer was the first to produce pure ASA that could be used for medical purposes. Due to the rise of the Nazis in Germany, Eichengrün was unable to object when Hoffman first made the claim that "he" (Hoffman) invented aspirin, in the footnote of a 1934 German Encyclopedia. Hoffman's claim was once widely accepted, but many historians now consider it to be discredited. Eichengrün first claimed to have
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug inflammation and also used willow bark to mitigate them. On 25 April 1763, Edward Stone wrote to the Royal Society describing his observations on the use of willow bark-based medicines in febrile patients. The active ingredient of willow bark, a glycoside called salicin, was first isolated by Johann Andreas Buchner in 1827. By 1829, French chemist Henri Leroux had improved the extraction process to obtain about 30g of purified salicin from 1.5 kg of bark. By hydrolysis, salicin releases glucose and salicylic alcohol which can be converted into salicylic acid, both in vivo and through chemical methods. The acid is