ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION The medicinal use of salycilic acid was first documented in the time of Hippocrates [1] and was studied in clinical trials as early as 1763 [2]. Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), or aspirin, was originally synthesized in 1897 by Felix Hoffman, a chemist at Friedr Bayer & Company, as a more palatable formulation of this widely used pain reliever [3]. Although it was initially sold to pharmacists in 250 gm bottles, with patients being dispensed 1 gm of the powder in a paper bag, imitators and adulterated versions of the powder led to the development by Bayer of an aspirin pill in 1900 [4]. In the United States, this was a 5-grain (approximately 325 mg) pill; the dose still most commonly used today.
