It seems that the medical properties of one of the oldest pharmaceuticals, aspirin, are still being discovered, decade after decade.
First, of course, there was the analgesic use – the reduction of aches, pains and fever. This was noticed by Hippocrates in Ancient Greece around 400 BC, based on the powdered bark of the willow tree. In the eighteenth century, the Reverend Edward Stone, who lived in Chipping Norton in the English Cotswolds, conducted experiments with this powder and wrote to the Royal Society outlining his discoveries.
In due course Felix Hoffmann at the German pharmaceutical company, Bayer, discovered how to manufacture the powder and in 1900 aspirin was patented by them.
But all that was just a start. In the middle of the twentieth century, it was observed that low doses of aspirin were effective in the prevention of heart attacks and strokes, saving countless lives, including mine.
And more recently it has been suggested that aspirin may be effective in reducing the risk of a whole range of cancers – colon, lung, bowel, pancreas, stomach and others.
How much more is to come?
Hurrah for Hippocrates, and the Rev Stone, and Herr Hoffmann.
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