Chemical Synthesis of Salicylic acid

The structure elucidation of salicylic acid we owe to Hermann Kolbe (1818-1884) and Victor Meyer (1848-1897). Also its industrial synthesis, from phenol and carbon dioxide, can be traced back to Kolbe, who developed this process in 1874. Previously, salicylic acid was produced by hydrolysis of its methyl ester, which in turn was obtained from wintergreen oU, a product of the steam distillation ofthe leaves ofthe American wintergreen oiteaheiry (Gaultheria procutn-bens) and the spice birch (Betula lento). 

Friedrich von Heyden, a student of Hermann Kolbe (1818-1884), founded a small factory in Dresden for the production of salicylic acid, from which later emerged the Arzneimittelwerke Dresden (Dresden Pharmaceutical Works). 

Acetylsalicylic acid was obtained in impure form for the first time in 1853 by the French chemist, Charles Fr d ric Gerhardt (1816-1856), and was later isolated in crystalline form by Karl Johann Kraut (1829-1912). 

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