16 January-February 2007 Bottles and Extras ® and ® The Connection! & The Collection! - Part II By Cecil Munsey Copyright © 2005

The next issue of Bottles and of bark as a medicine.) problem was almost certainly that he had Extras will conclude this article with Part Two Italians, Luigi Brugnatelli and another product on his mind whose II, which will begin with “The History of Joanes de Fontana, in 1826 found that the impending success he was anxious not to Aspirin.” active ingredient in willow bark was . jeopardize. This, of course, was heroin. Three years later, in 1829, a French chemist On March 6, 1899, Friedrick & In Part I, the history of Heroin was Henri Leroux, in his laboratory, obtained Co. patented the new compound and began covered. Part II concludes the article with salicin in its pure form. the distribution of ASPIRIN® in powder the History of Aspirin. A well-known folk medicine of the day form. in Sweden, which was a good pain reliever, At the turn of the twentieth century, II. History of Aspirin was meadowsweet (spires ulmaria). Bayer distributed aspirin powder in The roots of aspirin are deep and go In 1831 a Swiss pharmacist from Berne, envelopes free to many physicians to give back in history over twenty-five hundred Johann Pagenstecher, extracted a substance to their patients. Aspirin® was an years. As early as 500 BC Chinese healers from meadowsweet, which later prompted immediate success and very soon was the used willow bark as a remedy. a German chemist Karl Jacob Lowig, in number one drug worldwide. himself, the Greek father 1835, to obtain an acid from the substance It was sold only as a powder for just a of modern medicine (460–377 BC), Pagenstecher had extracted. Lowig named short time. The company’s switch from suggested chewing willow bark to lower it “.” dyes to pharmaceuticals fever and reduce pain. It was he who held Charles Frederick Von Gerhardt, a was so rapid the first lots the recipe for the pain reliever and fever Professor of Chemistry at France’s of aspirin as a powdered reducer made from the bark and leaves Montpellier University, first synthesized the drug were compounded of the willow tree. active ingredient in 1853 by combining and placed in recycled The actual recipe salicylic acid with acetic acid. beer bottles wrapped in was buried with towels for protection. him, and was not Creation of Aspirin® That was before the re-discovered until In 1897, Felix company decided to 80 AD when Hoffmann, a chemist invest in suitable Pedanius with Frederick Bayer & equipment, proper Dioscorides (40- Co. [Figure 26] who was facilities for its 90 AD), a Greek anxious to find a drug to Figure 28 production and sale in Figure 24 physician [Figure help relieve the painful cork-stoppered paper-labelled generic 24], prescribed symptoms of his father’s medicine bottles [Figure 28]. willow bark to reduce arthritis, modified The tablet form of the drug, the first inflam-mation in his salicylic acid to water-soluble pharmaceutical drug ever Figure 26 patients. acetylsalicylic acid to produced, was introduced in 1900. Its Before Dioscorides, make it less harsh on the stomach. Actually, launch also marked the commercial Gaius Pinius Cecilius Hoffmann on instructions from his boss, introduction of the first-ever compressed Secundus (23-79 AD), researcher Arthur Eichengruen, discovered tablet drug. This new method eliminated known as “Pliny the a new process for modifying salicylic acid the need to package Figure 25 Elder,” [Figure 25] used to produce acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) – later individual doses in paper willow bark to treat sciatica and other named “aspirin.” bags or envelopes and ailments. Arthur thus cut costs by half. In the early 1700s European settlers Eichengruen [Figure It was around 1915 encountered “Indians” (Native Americans) 27] enthusiastically that Aspirin® began to be using willow bark medicinally. recommended ASA to marketed in small tins in In 1763 the Royal Society of London Dreser in 1898. addition to bottles published an article by the Rev. Edward Dreser, who after [Figures 29, 30, and 31]. Stone, “Account of the success of the Bark cursory consideration, Bayer retained many of of the Willow in the Cure of Agues,” rejected it. Ostensibly, the methods used officially reporting what had been folklore Figure 27 his objection was that Figure 29 previously in the sale of for centuries. More specifically, he told of ASA would have an “enfeebling” action on dyestuffs in highly competitive markets: fifty feverish patients treated with willow the heart. “The product has no value,” he sales representatives, advertisements in bark. (That was the first known human pronounced confidently. But the real trade journals, and the use of patents and Bottles and Extras January-February 2007 17

brand of faith healing. Removing the Figure 34 aspirin treatment led to an improvement in the tsarevich’s condition, thus sealing Rasputin’s influence over the queen. (Many historians believe Rasputin’s influence was one of the factors leading to the weakening of the Russian monarchy, leading to its eventual overthrow in 1917, followed by the rise of communism there.)

Aspirin in the 20th century In 1917 Bayer’s patent on Aspirin® ran available without a prescription [Figure out, allowing other companies to sell 33]. Figure 30 acetylsalicylic acid. Bayer retained the In 1929 Bayer toured America in a car trademarked name, “Aspirin,” at least plastered with aspirin advertising [Figure temporarily. 34]. Aspirin’s success ended up costing the By the 1930s, aspirin was considered the Bayer Company a great deal of money, number one painkiller. Numerous authors when the U.S., England, France, and Russia have mentioned it in their books. Many of forced it to surrender the Aspirin® them, like Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka, trademark to them, as part of Germany’s believed in its pain relieving and anti- war reparations at the close of World War inflammatory effects and said so. I. Bayer was forced to give up the By 1933 it was accepted as a safe and Figure 31 trademark in 1919, as part of the Treaty of effective remedy for arthritis. Versailles, which explains why aspirin, Aspirin is known almost everywhere trade names. By restricting its marketing stripped of its trademark, is now a generic from New York to to the pharmaceutical and medical name and is written in the lower case. Tokyo, from Berlin professions, Bayer avoided the unseemly (Bayer also held, and had to give up, its to Sydney. The trappings of the nostrum trade and trademark to Heroin® at the end of World product has been established itself as a member of the War I.) advertised heavily “ethical” medicine fraternity. over the years. It As early as 1903, the medical profession came in containers Figure 35 Aspirin and Hemophilia accepted Aspirin® as a safe and effective of cardboard – A true story remedy for backache. That was the first of during World War II [Figure 35]. Generations of inbreeding had led most a variety of acceptances of Aspirin® by In 1948 Dr. Lawrence Carven, a of the royal families of Europe to be doctors. California general practitioner, noticed that affected by various genetic diseases, the Until 1915 Aspirin® was only available the 400 men he prescribed aspirin to as a most prominent being hemophilia, a lack of by prescription. After that Aspirin® became blood thinner hadn’t suffered any heart clotting factors in the blood that can cause attacks. After that observation, he regularly victims to literally bleed to death from the Figure 33 recommended to all patients and colleagues slightest cut. that “an aspirin a day” could dramatically The tsarevich reduce the risk of heart attack. Despite (Czar) heir to publishing his results first in the Annals of the throne of Western Medicine and Surgery, and later Russia was after a more extensive study in the one of those Mississippi Valley Medical Journal, Dr. affected. His Craven’s reports were generally ignored. physicians It took the scientific community more prescribed than a decade to recognize Vane’s aspirin, the contribution. In 1982 Sir was wonder drug finally awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine from the West. for reporting the inhibition of As aspirin is a prostaglandinsynthesis by acetylsalicylic Figure 32 blood thinner, acid. this actually Children’s Chewable Aspirin was worsened the hapless boy’s condition. introduced in 1952. Gregory Efinovich Rasputin (1869-1916) In 1969 Bayer Aspirin tablets were [Figure 32], a charismatic monk, advised included in the self-medication kits taken the royal family to shun the impious potions to the moon by the Apollo II astronauts. of the western heretics and to adopt his Aspirin proved very effective in combating the headaches and muscle pains that frequently resulted from long periods of immobility. 18 January-February 2007 Bottles and Extras

Further research proved, in 1975, that () or heart attack and more than 10,000 tons is used annually. low-dose aspirin prevents heart attack in preventing MI in patients with unstable Aspirin has already established a solid people with some types of heart disease. angina. The FDA also approved the use of reputation for itself in many areas as Just three years later, in 1978, research aspirin for the prevention of recurrent chronicled here. The next 100 years will proved that aspirin reduces the risk of transient-ischemic attacks or “mini-” show us what other possibilities it might . in men and made aspirin standard therapy have both for patients and collectors. Collecting of aspirin memorabilia is for previous strokes in men. In the same carried on today and year preliminary studies suggested that References: many things are made to aspirin aided gallstone treatment. [Anonymous]. “Expertise With celebrate the continued A study, in 1989, revealed that low-dose Responsibility – Bayer” http:// success of aspirin such aspirin taken every other day reduced the respir.med.unisi.it/bayer.htm as these gold cuff links risk of heart disease by nearly 50 percent [Anonymous]. Nostrums and used to contain aspirin in healthy men. In the same year studies Quackery. Chicago:. American Medical tablets on a shirt with indicated that aspirin may slow the Association, 1912. French cuffs [Figure development of cataracts. [Anonymous]. “Stroke Warning on 36]. Aspirin is over 100 years old. In 1990 Aspirin Therapy,” BBC NEWS, February Figure 36 studies proved that aspirin taken every other 5, 2005. How aspirin works day reduces migraine attacks. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/hi/ “In 1971 British pharmacologist, Sir Studies of aspirin proved that it helps health/4229599.stm John R. Vane discovered aspirin reduces the prevent colon and rectal cancers (1991). Grinspoon, Lester & Bakalar, James B. production of hormone-like substances Other studies demonstrated that aspirin COCAINE – A Drug and its Social called , which are produced reduces the risk of heart attacks in women Evolution. in tissues throughout the body. (1991). New York: Basic Books, Inc., Prostaglandins have many functions. They In 1999 Genuine Bayer Aspirin and Publishers, 1976. are part of the chemical messenger systems Extra Strength Bayer Aspirin Gelcaps were Hegde, Prof. B. M. “History of involved in feeling pain, fever, the redness introduced. Aspirin.” M. A. H. E. University, http:// and swelling that can accompany injuries, Needless to say, aspirin use has ww.bmhegde.com/aspiriin history.html and even in contracting certain muscles, for broadened significantly to include much Jeffreys, Diarmuid. ASPIRIN The example, the uterus. Since aspirin lowers more than headaches and pain. This Remarkable Story of A Wonder Drug. New the amount of prostaglandins, it can help remarkably simple drug derived from the York & London: Bloomsbury (Holtzbrinck alleviate conditions like pain, fever and the bark of a willow tree has become the most Publishers), 2003. discomfort of menstrual cramps. Aspirin prevalent compound ever devised in the Mann, Charles C. & Plummer, Mark also reduces production of substances history of pharmacology. L. THE ASPIRIN WARS – Money, involved in the early stages of our body’s After a century of active proliferation Medicine, and 100 Years of Rampant blood clotting mechanism. That is why and ever-wider acceptance and use, aspirin Competition. New York: Alfred A. Knops, doctors may prescribe aspirin, as part of a was formally inducted into the Smithsonian 1991. regimen including diet and exercise, for Institution’s National Museum of American Munsey, Cecil. The Illustrated Guide appropriate individual with cardiovascular History in 1999. to COLLECTING BOTTLES. New York: disease.” To-date, no drug has been able to rival Hawthorn Books, Inc. 1970. In 1982 more studies proved that aspirin the success of aspirin – the first every Munsey, Cecil. The Illustrated Guide reduces the risk of heart attack in men at synthetic compound. to the COLLECTIBLES OF COCA-COLA. high-risk for heart disease. Collectors of aspirin memorabilia New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc. 1972. Toleraid® microcoating (clear-coat) was (bottles, tins, advertising and history) can Pollack, Andrew. “The Search for the added to Genuine Bayer Aspirin in 1984 to be proud of their accumulations of a very Killer Painkiller,” New York Times, make the tablets easier to swallow. historic and important pharmaceutical February 5, 2005. In 1988 the use of aspirin expanded product. Rosenfeld, Dr. Isadore. “The Miracle beyond pain relief to that of a potential Americans consume over 50 million In Your Medicine Cabinet,” PARADE lifesaver. The FDA approved aspirin for aspirin tablets every day – which is over magazine, January 1, 2006. reducing the risk of recurrent MI 15 billion tablets a year. In the U. S. alone,

Cecil Munsey 13541 Willow Run Road Poway, CA 92064-1733 (858) 487-7036 [email protected]