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Abstract
Aspirin is currently the most widely used drug worldwide, and has been clearly one
of the most important pharmacological achievements of the twentieth century. Historians
of medicine have traced its birth in 1897, but the fascinating history of aspirin
actually dates back >3500 years, when willow bark was used as a painkiller and antipyretic
by Sumerians and Egyptians, and then by great physicians from ancient Greece and Rome.
The modern history of aspirin precursors, salicylates, began in 1763 with Reverend
Stone - who first described their antipyretic effects - and continued in the 19th
century with many researchers involved in their extraction and chemical synthesis.
Bayer chemist Felix Hoffmann synthesized aspirin in 1897, and 70 years later the pharmacologist
John Vane elucidated its mechanism of action in inhibiting prostaglandin production.
Originally used as an antipyretic and anti-inflammatory drug, aspirin then became,
for its antiplatelet properties, a milestone in preventing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular
diseases. The aspirin story continues today with the growing evidence of its chemopreventive
effect against colorectal and other types of cancer, now awaiting the results of ongoing
primary prevention trials in this setting. This concise review revisits the history
of aspirin with a focus on its most remote origins.