History of aspirin mid-eighteenth century. By the nineteenth century pharmacists were experimenting with and prescribing a variety of chemicals related to salicylic acid, the active component of willow extract. In 1853, chemist Charles Frédéric Gerhardt treated acetyl chloride with sodium salicylate to produce acetylsalicylic acid for the first time; in the second half of the nineteenth century, other academic chemists established the compound's chemical structure and devised more efficient methods of synthesis. In 1897, scientists at the drug and dye firm Bayer began investigating acetylsalicylic acid as a less-irritating replacement for standard common salicylate medicines, and identified a new way to synthesize it.
Phenylarsonic acid was first prepared by Michaelis and Loenser. X-ray crystallography indicates that the molecules are connected by hydrogen-bonds consistent with short distance of 2.5 Å separating the oxygen atoms. The arsenic center is tetrahedral. Several derivatives of phenylarsonic acid have been used as additives for animal feeds. These include 4-hydroxy-3-nitrobenzenearsonic acid (3-NHPAA, or Roxarsone), "p"-arsanilic acid ("p"-ASA), 4-nitrophenylarsonic acid (4-NPAA), and "p"-ureidophenylarsonic acid ("p"-UPAA). Phenylarsonic acid Phenylarsonic acid is the chemical compound with the formula CHAsO(OH), commonly abbreviated PhAsOH. This colourless solid is an organic derivative of arsenic acid, AsO(OH), where one OH group has been replaced by a phenyl group.