Bayer chemist Feliz Hofmann investigated the properties of compounds with similarities to salicyclic acid, obtained from salicin, a molecule with analgesic properties isolated in 1827 from willow bark (Salix). Salicyclic acid, despite containing glucose, has a bitter taste. Its properties reduce fever and relieve pain, and it has an anti-inflammatory effect, although it is highly irritating to the stomach. Hofmann developed a derivative of salicyclic acid: acetylsalicylic acid, which attenuated the corrosive properties in the stomach, and tested it on his father, who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. Fortunately for him, his father, and Bayer, the experiment was a success. Bayer marketed the product, under the name Aspirin, in 1899. The name Bayer became synonymous with aspirin and brought the company’s fortune. The synthesis of aspirin would later evolve, starting from phenol. It would later be discovered that aspirin also had the property of thinning the blood.
