Hoffman, Felix

Hippocrates, 167 Hoffman, Felix, 168 Hooke, Robert, 6, 18, 19, 297 Hyatt, John Wesley, 298... 

The discovery of aspirin or acetylsali-cylic acid as a pain reliever is credited to Felix Hoffman (1868-1946) who was looking for a substitute for sodium salicylate to treat his father s arthritis. Hoffman uncovered and continued the work of Gerhardt from forty years before. Hoffman reacted salicylic acid with acetic acid to produce acetylsalicylic acid in 1897 Figure 13.3. 

The German company Bayer was the first to widely commercialize a synthetic drug (acetylsalicylic acid) in 1899. The company was not looking for a drug to relieve the pain of rheumatism 100 years ago, but a 29-year-old Bayer chemist and pharmacist, named Felix Hoffman, was looking for a way to relieve his father s suffering. Sodium salicylate, which was used to treat rheumatism victims at the time, not only did not taste pleasant but the acid also attacked the mucosal linings of the mouth and stomach. 

Felix Hoffman worked for the manufacturers Bayer. His father suffered from arthritis and became sick when he took salicylic acid. He challenged his son to find a better alternative. Hoffman did this in 1893 when he made the compound acetyl salicylic acid. This compound went through extensive clinical trials and in 1899 it came on the market as aspirin (Figure 1.5). It proved to be a wonder drug and still is. 

One of the early pain-relieving drugs, aspirin, was introduced in 1899 by Felix Hoffman, working for the German pharmaceutical firm Bayer. In 1898 Bayer also introduced heroin as a pain killer. Aspirin2-4 is a man-made synthetic chemical compound, acetylsalicylic acid. It is made from salicylic acid. The ancient Greeks and native South Americans, among others, found that the bark of the willow tree eased fever and pain. We now know that this is because the bark contains salicylic acid. Salicylic acid is bitter and irritates the stomach (see also Chapter 1). 

Both salicylic acid and sodium salicylate (its sodium salt) were widely used analgesics in the nineteenth century, but both had undesirable side effects. Salicylic acid irritated the mucous membranes of the mouth and stomach, and sodium salicylate was too sweet for most patients. Aspirin, a synthetic compound, was first sold in 1899 after Felix Hoffman, a German chemist at Bayer Company, developed a feasible commercial synthesis. Hoffman s work was motivated by personal reasons his father suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and was unable to tolerate the sweet taste of sodium salicylate. 

In 1859, a chemist named Herman Kolbe identified the chemical structure of the compound that made willow hark an effective herbal medicine. Unfortunately, many people who took the medicine suffered upset stomachs from it. One such person was the father of a chemist named Felix Hoffman. To help his father, Hoffman changed the compound in such a way that it eased his father s arthritis without irritating his stomach. The new compound was acetyl-sahcyhc acid, now known as aspirin. 

The modern method for making aspirin was developed in 1897 by the German chemist Felix Hoffman (1868-1946), an employee of the German chemical manufacturer Bayer AG Chemical Works. In this procedure, phenol (C6H50H) is treated with sodium hydroxide and carbon dioxide to make salicylic... 

In 1863, the comjjany that was to become Bayer (of aspirin and pharmaceutical fame) was founded in Germany by Friedrich Bayer (1825-1880) and Johann Friedrich Weskott (1821-1876), both of whom were dye makers. The pharmaceutical group was not formed until 1881. Aspirin, developed by Bayer chemist Felix Hoffman, was commercialized in 1899, a year that marked the initial emergence of the drug industry as a separate entity. 

Felix Hoffman - http //commons.wikimedia.0rg/wiki/File Felix Hofifman.jpg... 

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