In later centuries, explorors also noted the Native Americans chewing on bark, claiming it had "healing" effects.
It was later dicovered in 1829 by a pharmascist named Leroux, that the healing effects came from a part of the plant known as Silican, when ingested forming Salysilic Acid.
Then in approximately1883 a German chemist known as Felix Hoffman began to tinker with the silican compound. His father was severly suffering from arthritis, but was unable to tolerate the silican since it upset his stomache His son Felix reasoned that the acid (from the salysilic acid once inside his body) was the cause of his discomfort.
In order to minimize the acids affect on his fathers' stomach lining, Felix began to try to cover up (change) the acid groups in the molecule. He thought that if the acid didn't come in direct contact with the stomach, it might reduce the negative affects. To do this he combined the Salysylic Acid with an Acetyl group. This seemed to work and the molecule was now Acetylsalicylic Acid, also called ASA.
He created ASA on August 10, 1887. He later called it Aspirin, the "a" is from acetyl wihile the "spir" is derived from the spiraea plant.
His German company, Bayer and Co. were very unsure of this new creation and initially refused to market and distribute it. Then a fellow top chemist(Dreser) supported his new compound and Bayer began manufacturing and distributing the new "wonder" drug.
