Aspirin throughout the ages: an historical review.

Even at the beginning of the next millennium, aspirin will still offer surp rises. Its relatively young pharmacological history compares with the early use of salicylate-containing plants since antiquity. The Assyrians and the Egyptians were aware of the analgesic effects of a decoction of myrtle or willow leaves for joint pains. Hippocrates recommended chewing willow leave s for analgesia in childbirth and the Reverend Edward Stones is acknowledge d as the first person to scientifically define the benefical antipyretic ef fects of willow bark. At the beginning of the 19th century salicin was extr acted from willow bark and purified. Although a French chemist, Charles Ger hardt, was the first to synthesize aspirin in a crude form, the compound wa s ignored, and later studied by Felix Hoffmann. He reportedly tested the re discovered agent on himself and on his father who suffered from chronic art hritis - a legend was born and Bayer Laboratories rose to the heights of th e pharmacological world. First used for ifs potent analgesic, antipyretic a nd anti-inflammatory properties, aspirin was successfully used as an antith rombotic agent Sir John Vane elucidated aspirin's active mechanism as an in hibitor of prostaglandin synthetase and received the Nobel Price in Medicin e for this work in 1982. Two isoform of cyclooxygenase (COX-1 and COX-2) ha ve now been identified each possessing similar activities, but differing in characteristic tissue expression. The cox enzyme is now a target of drug i nterventions against the inflammatory process. After two centuries of evalu ation, aspirin remains topical, and new therapeutic indications are increas ingly being studied. (C) 2000 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.