Willow anti-inflammatory properties

Aspirin, or acetylsalicylic acid, is the most well known member of a group of compounds called salicylates. Although aspirin was first used in medicine for its analgesic (pain-relieving), antipyretic (fever-reducing), and anti-inflammatory properties, today it is commonly used as an antiplatelet agent in the treatment and prevention of heart attacks and strokes. Aspirin is a synthetic compound it does not occur in nature, though some related salicylates are found in willow bark and meadowsweet blossoms. 

Of course, none of this was known in 1897 when aspirin was first synthesised or indeed even earlier where it had long been recognised that extracts of willow bark had anti-inflammatory properties. Aspirin soon entered into clinical use and it was followed by other compounds such as indomethacin. The first adverse effects to become apparent were those on the gastrointestinal system. 

Willow is reputed to have anti-inflammatory, antirheumatic, antipyretic, antihidrotic, analgesic, antiseptic, and astringent properties. Traditionally, it is used for muscular and arthrodial rheumatism with inflammation and pain, influenza, respiratory catarrh, gouty arthritis, and other systemic connective tissue disorders characterized by inflammatory changes. 

The large family of medicines known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drags (NS AID, 3.3) today also owes its existence to primitive observations about the effect of the willow Salix in Latin). In this case, it was not the original compound, but a chemical derivative that became a blockbuster drag. The taste of willow bark is bitter, and similar to the taste of the bark of a South American plant Cinchona, which is an effective treatment against malaria. As well as the taste, the effect was also similar willow bark seemed to possess an antifever property. Today, it has been established that salicin is the active ingredient, but a simpler derivative named acetylsalicylic acid proved to be more potent (— 3.25), and is currently sold under the trade name Aspirin. 

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