Introduction

Aspirin is the common name for the compound acetylsalicylic

acid, widely used as a fever reducer and as a pain killer. Salicylic
acid, whose name comes from Salix, the willow family of plants,
was derived from willow bark extracts. Aspirin, is
a medication used to reduce pain, fever, or inflammation.
[5] Specific inflammatory conditions which aspirin is used to treat
include Kawasaki disease, pericarditis, and rheumatic fever.
[5] Aspirin given shortly after a heart attack decreases the risk of death.[5] Aspirin is also used
long-term to help prevent further heart attacks, ischaemic strokes, and blood clots in people at high
risk. Now, Aspirin is one of the most widely used medications globally, with an estimated 50 to 120
billion consumed each year.

History
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.[9]:8–13[12] Hippocrates referred
to the use of salicylic tea to reduce fevers around 400 BC, and willow bark preparations were part
of the pharmacopoeia of Western medicine in classical antiquity and the Middle Ages.[12] Willow
bark extract became recognized for its specific effects on fever, pain, and inflammation in the mid-
eighteenth century.

A  German chemist named Felix Hoffman is credited with being the first to synthesize aspirin in
1897. Hoffman's father had severe arthritis but could not tolerate salicylic acid he was taking for
pain relief. The name given for Hoffman's new compound was A-spirin. Apparently this comes
from acetylation (A-), together with Spirin, part of the name for Meadow-sweet (Spiraea ulmaria), a
plant rich in salicylates.
Friedrich Bayer, the employer of Hoffman, patented the name and began marketing the product in
1899. It was a huge success and sales grew rapidly. Bayer's company set up by himself, is generally
reckoned to have been the first pharmaceutical company, and the production of aspirin is generally
accepted to have laid the foundation of the modern pharmaceutical industry.
PREPARATION OF ASPIRIN
To prepare aspirin, salicylic acid is reacted with an excess of acetic anhydride. A small amount of a
strong acid is used as a catalyst which speeds up the reaction. In this experiment, phosphoric acid
will be used as the catalyst. The excess acetic acid will be quenched with the addition of water. The
aspirin product is not very soluble in water so the aspirin product will precipitate when water is
added.