WEBVTT - Aspirin: The Wonder Drug 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you should know. A production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.200 Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:19.560 and there's Chuck and there's Jerry out there coated in powder. Um, 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:22.560 and this is the stuff you should know, the aspirin edition. 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:27.960 Why don't you pick this one? I've been reading a 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:32.640 giant book on aspirin and yeah, yeah, biography and you know, 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:38.280 behind the scenes, backstage that aspirin, all the ups and downs, 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:42.960 like a behind the music basically. Yeah, I don't remember 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:49.400 why I picked this. I just don't remember, but um, 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.280 I did, and I'm going to stand by it. Remember 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:58.400 when aspirin o'deed on itself? Yeah, yeah, June's family. That's 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.480 some nasty stuff to od onto, it turns out, I 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:03.880 would think, so. I mean not only the result, but 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:06.920 just the taste. I don't like the taste either. But 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:09.600 haven't you said that you're like a good eas headache 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:13.440 powder dude? Yeah, good eas er BC. I will, um, 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:17.000 you know, that's a lot of aspirin. It's like, you know, 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:18.680 if you will, and we'll get to this. But if 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:20.679 you have like a hard issue, they recommend you take 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:23.800 something like eighty five milligrams and in a good eason 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.720 a BC is like eight and fifty Holy cow, is 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.080 it really? Yeah? Plus caffeine. It's a it's a big 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.959 dose of aspirin plus the sea menafin two. It's it's um, 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:37.840 it's powdered excetern it's what is the same same formula? Well, 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:39.880 they're both different, but yeah, one of them is. I 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:44.120 can't remember which one. I think good eas is powdered, etcetera. Yeah, 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:47.800 I think BC does not have the SA menafin and 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:51.360 just has caffeine and maybe more caffeine. Wow, it's like 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.440 the jolt coal of headache powder. But point is, I 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:58.400 don't take that a lot anymore. And h it uh, 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:00.240 I don't mind the taste. I though it grows. There's 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:02.880 a lot of people out, but I don't love it. 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:04.720 And I'm I don't just like let it sit on 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:07.480 my tongue and does allve forever, Like I wash it 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:11.840 down very quickly, right, But I'm not like I got you. 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:14.800 It's just pretty better. You have no problem with the drain. 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:20.880 You're okay, funny guy. So um, we are talking aspirin 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:25.160 today and it is uh kind of tough. I've realized 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:30.400 to overstate the importance of aspirin as far as like 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:34.800 the world's medicine cabinet goes like, there is no other 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:38.400 drug that has been sold more than aspirin in the 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:43.160 history of humanity. Did you know that? Sure? Okay, I 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.880 mean you know it's it's it's the go to or 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:51.160 was for many, many, many many years, until other inseids 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:55.080 started making the scene. For you know, decades and decades, 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:56.799 aspirin was sort of the go to for a lot 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:59.919 of stuff. That's true. All right, Let's see if I 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:02.680 and impress you with this. One of the great things 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:07.520 about aspirin is it's synthesized from nature that it's actually 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:11.800 a perfected version of something that you would find in 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:16.440 a number of plants salasilic acid um. But specifically it 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:22.400 was Willow that yielded up her secrets for mankind humankind 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:27.600 to use as a medicine to make things better. Yeah, 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.320 I mean, that's a that's a lot of medicines, and 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:34.240 that's uh. You know, Emily has gotten really into herbalism 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:35.760 here in the last few years, and that's kind of 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:40.200 one of her beefs is that the medical inform of 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:42.720 industries have synthesized things and gotten rid of a lot 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.840 of the great parts of the plant. Sure she feels 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.160 like are of great use to human beings to make 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:54.320 the synthetic versions. Okay, fair enough in this case though 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:57.560 with aspirin, I would argue that it is the improved 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:02.280 version of nature's version. Oh yeah, I think so, and 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:04.280 we'll we'll talk about why. But like I said, it 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:09.360 was the willow plant that people realized pretty far back, chuck. Um. 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:14.040 I believe it was at least as as Um, as 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:18.480 late as the Sumerians. Um who I think there are 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:21.520 clay tablets found that basically said, are your joint sachy, 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:25.679 Try a little willow leaf tea. It'll fix you right up. Yeah, 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:28.440 it was um, you know they I don't think they 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:30.000 had the name for it at the time, but it 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:34.039 was sala Cylene was the ingredient, and you could boil 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:35.680 it down into a tea. Like you said, you could 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.800 dry dry it out and powder that bark up and 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:41.280 pound it down and work it through a sieve and 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:44.120 get you know, I guess an early version of goodies, 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:48.839 and you would, I mean everything from the Egyptians. There's 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.240 the Ebers Papyrus, which is a kind of a fun 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:56.160 little cookbook textbook, medical journal kind of thing that has 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:59.880 recipes for myrtle and willow leaf tea for joint pa. 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:04.279 Great chili recipe in there too, great chili. Uh, they 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:06.520 too bad. They didn't know about Freedo's back then. But 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:11.960 um and by the way, speaking of Friedo's, Yeah, you know, 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.400 there's actually a chapter in our book about freedom tows 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.840 on dogs. There is, I know, MoMA is in it. 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:22.520 I think that we don't talk enough about the fun 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:24.800 chapters of our book. There's a lot of like, kind 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:28.640 of heavy stuff, but there's also a chapter about freedom tows, which, 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:30.839 if you don't have a dog, it is it is 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:35.280 the smell of corn chips that a dog's paws can admit. Yeah, 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:37.240 that was kind of one of the more fun chapters. 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:39.600 I think it was a good chapter for sure, because 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.080 we talked not just about that, but about not just 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.880 about how humans perceived the smell of dogs paws, but 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.760 how dogs perceived the world with smell. Different bacteria can 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:51.640 make different smells, and it's pretty It was a good one. 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:53.880 I like that one, although I like our whole book, 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.080 to be honest. I finally got it two days ago. 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.240 Who ray, what do you think? Well, First of all, 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:02.800 it was very happy about how many they sent. Yeah, 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:04.359 I thought they were gonna send me a couple of books. 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:06.000 They sent me a big old box of books like 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:09.479 they did you. And it was just really great to 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.760 hold in my hand. And and it's it's it's awesome. 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.760 It looks great, it's the size we wanted, it looks 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.480 it looks like a real book. It is. It's a 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:23.280 legit book, like, which is weird, real book? I know. 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:26.880 Did they put your name on the box? No, your 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:29.320 name was on my box? Is that right? They put 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:31.840 my name on my box too. They just said, what 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:34.120 do you mean? It just said the book titled Then 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:36.520 by Josh Clark. Yeah, yeah that's what it said. I 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.080 think they just didn't print the whole thing. Okay. Well, 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:41.720 I like my idea that they were going to personalize 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:46.040 each of our box nice touch flat. This just sounds 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:51.479 like lazy box printing. But I got you okay. Well, yeah, 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:54.640 I wasn't like trying to rub it in thinking that 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.000 they would have personalized your box too. But you're like, 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:59.719 I'm going to save that box, but whatever. Yeah, actually, 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:02.840 can you send me your box? Okay, I'll send you 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:06.400 the box with a big old load of poop in it. Yeah, 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:08.680 there's like a foothole where where it used to see 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:11.280 Josh Clark. Uh. So anyway, you can pre order that 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.560 book stuff you should know, an incomplete compendium of mostly 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:19.200 interesting things. But back to aspirin Um. This book was 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:21.680 I don't even know where I was talking about. Oh, 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:25.240 people like plenty of the Elder and Hippocrates had written 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.800 about aspirin, or it wasn't aspirin yet, but sell us Eileen. 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:31.960 As you know, basically early on it was all about 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:36.480 reducing fever and reducing joint like arthritis, joint pain inflammation. 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:39.760 And it's still really good for that too. Aspirin it 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:43.920 turns out as a non steroidal anti inflammatory drug and 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:50.080 insid um and it like people realize that it was useful, 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:53.680 like you said, for for joint inflammation, for a fever reduction, 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.960 which makes it an anti pyretic um, which I think 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:00.800 is a great word um. And we knew about this 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:04.160 for centuries and apparently Europe introduced to China for once 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:07.080 rather than vice versa. But then it just kind of 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:10.840 fell away, It fell to the wayside um kind of 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.920 out of human knowledge, although like it was still there 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:18.080 just nobody was thinking about willow any longer until malaria 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.320 became a big thing. When UM the Age of Discovery 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:26.080 began and Europeans started to uh colonize other parts of 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:29.400 the world, including South America, malaria became a bit of 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:33.479 a problem UM. And one of the remedies for malaria 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:40.040 we figured out was sin chona sinchona, right. I always 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:42.720 said chinchona, but I think it is cinchona. I always 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:45.080 say chinchona too, but I'm looking right at it, and 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:47.720 I don't see that first age unless it's a weird 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:51.760 pronunciation thing. I think I've probably just been saying it wrong. Okay, 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.319 well let's let's say sin chona. Then we'll pronounce it 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:57.480 correctly for once in our lives. And that's a different 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:01.439 kind of tree whose bark works really well to treat malaria, 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:05.600 and not just treat malaria, but also reduced fevers as well. Um. 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:08.120 But the problem is is getting it from South America 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.559 can be very very expensive, or it certainly was in 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:16.000 the UM sixteen, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. So it caused 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:20.400 this one guy European um doctor I believe, or at 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:25.200 least a researcher named Reverend Edward Stone to look for 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:28.840 an alternative for it, and he came upon willow. He 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:33.600 rediscovered willow again for the treatment of fevers in inflammation. 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:38.560 And by the way, I think we mispronounced is it shinchona? 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:42.240 I just know it's neither. That's so us. I just 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:45.520 looked up real quick. It says it's sun chona. Okay, 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.640 I like that one. It almost sounds like it almost 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:54.320 sounds like Quimby saying chowder. It's so weird, So sun shona. Yeah. 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:58.679 Edward Stone goes looking for an alternative, and he starts 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:02.000 looking at the willow bark in its properties and does 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.400 a pretty decent study for back then UH in seventeen 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.280 sixty three and found that a four hour administration of 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:13.600 willow bark powder um would reduce fever pretty consistently. And 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:15.360 like I said, it was a good study for back 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.320 then UM. There were some other Europeans who were also 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:22.840 extracting um, the active ingredient, from willow, and it was 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:25.319 kind of happening all around the same time. I think 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:27.200 it guy named LaRue did the best job of it 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:32.959 in the early eight and what they got was the 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:41.839 substance salacene, right, So um. That's basically the they isolated 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:44.880 the active ingredient in willow bark, and not just willow 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:49.840 bark um salacene or salacelic acid, which probably sounds familiar 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:53.360 um if you've ever used some sort of skincare treatment, 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:56.160 say to combat acne, because it actually goes in and 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:58.920 dissolves the stuff in your pores, so it comes in 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:03.120 handy like that. UM. When they when they isolated it, 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.360 they they found out that oh, actually this this pops 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.240 up elsewhere in nature. It's actually UM a kind of 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.840 hormone that plants use for their own immune response. And 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:15.040 you can find it and everything from willow or myrtle 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:18.760 or meadow sweet to jasmine peas clover. It pops up 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:21.760 very It's a pretty common plant hormone. And it was 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:26.320 isolated finally in the early nineteenth century. Yeah, and there 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.959 were a couple of other kind of important uh side 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:33.040 roads on the way to aspirin. That happened one in 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:39.000 eighteen fifty three when a French chemist name Gerhardt, he 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:43.640 invented aspirin by accident, but he wasn't very refined in 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:45.600 how he did it. It was not a very good quality, 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:49.600 was pretty impure. Not very effective, so it was not 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:53.040 paid very much attention to, but we have to mention him. 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:56.720 And then in the eighteens, fifties and sixties, some German 0:11:56.840 --> 0:12:01.560 chemists figured out how to produce it synthetically. They learned 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:05.680 the chemical structure of salicylate, which is just kind of 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:07.520 crazy to think that they could do stuff like that 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:11.679 back then. Um, that they were that advanced and learning 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.320 chemical structures of something like that, I was impressed by that. 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:18.880 But yeah, and they figured out how to produce it synthetically, 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:22.959 made it very much available, very inexpensive, and that was 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:26.520 all of a sudden. It was a very popular fever 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:30.360 reducer and pain reliever, despite its side effects, which are 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:35.840 mainly stomach problems and tenatus. Yes, but the thing is 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:43.319 is with that um, with especially tenitis and nausea like, 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:46.160 it can be really bad if you take too much. 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:49.600 It's temporary, but it can be a real problem. And 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.720 over time they also found out that it can produce 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:57.160 long term chronic effects because it's so hard on your 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:01.640 stomach because again, you're using the same sub sense um 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:03.840 that you used to clean out the ports, does all 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:06.160 the stuff in your and your pores that has a 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:08.640 big effect on your stomach, and in fact, we would 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:12.040 find later on that it erodes your gastric mucosa, your 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:15.240 stomach lining, and that can produce all sorts of problems 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.400 on its own. In the short term, it makes you 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:19.240 want to just throw up and die if you take 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:21.480 too much aspirin. And that's what we figured out with 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:25.079 salasilic acid. And that was the point of aspirin, was 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:27.760 to figure out how to create how to take this 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:32.319 really useful, important drug that had been known for millennia 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.559 by this time, and make it so it was it 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:38.199 didn't have any of these unpleasant side effects. And that's 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:41.319 where aspirin came from. Yeah, so maybe we can take 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:46.040 a break and come back and talk about very sort 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:49.520 of legendary company out of Germany called Buyer right after this. 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:17.120 All right, if you heard me say Buyer and you're thinking, dude, 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:22.120 it's bear aspirin. What are you German? No, I'm not German, 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.160 but that's how you pronounced it over there, It's Buyer. 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:27.600 We pronounced a bear over here. They were originally a 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:32.080 die making company, but like so many other companies involved 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:37.600 in chemistry, um, they could pivot very easily and you 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:40.280 start discovering things when you're working in chemistry that might 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:42.680 make you more money, and that was sort of the 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:46.280 case with Buyer, and they set up a pharmaceutical wing 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:49.120 and said, hey, you know, we're discovering these other things 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:51.000 and you can make a ton of money in pharmaceuticals. 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:53.720 And this is just sort of at the beginning of that. 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:56.600 They had no idea what they were onto, but they 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.880 started a pharmaceutical wing and said, one of our first 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:04.240 things we want to try and do is to create 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.080 a version of salasylate that doesn't have all these nasty 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.080 side effects. Yeah, and there's a there's a long standing 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:15.440 story in the chemistry community UM that a guy named 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:20.200 Felix Hoffman, a German chemist who worked for bear Um, 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:24.000 was trying to figure out a way to make salasilic 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:28.200 acid UH more easy on his father's stomach. His father 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:31.960 had rheumatism um, which is a chronic inflammation of the joints, 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.040 and he had to take salasilic acid a lot. So 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:37.600 Felix Hoffman was trying to figure out how to help 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:41.160 his dad out when he stumbled upon the recipe that 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:46.600 or what would become the recipe for aspirin that's right, So, uh, 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:50.320 all of this lad to one of the most popular 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:52.720 drugs in the history of the world. Um, there is 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:55.840 some debate. Like with everything like this, it seems like 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:58.520 sometimes it's hard to tell who exactly has given credit 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:03.360 because history is written by the victors, and um, in 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:05.800 this case, well, there's a there's three men. There's a 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.440 fourth dude named Carl Duisberg, who is included as being 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:11.440 a big person in the development because he was a 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.640 marketer and his marketing skills were a big, big reason 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.880 why aspirin was so successful. But a lot of people 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:22.000 point to Felix Hoffman as the quote unquote inventor of 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:27.640 aspirin because on August ten, in his notebook entry, he 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:35.000 described adding UH ascetic and hydrate and hydride to UH 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:40.760 salasylate and created aspirin. I'm gonna say it if you 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:45.240 won't say it. It's it's called aspirin. A setle silic man, 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:50.560 a setle salacilic acid. Yeah, it's it's kind of fun 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.800 to say. It has like a setle seal a salic acid. 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:57.440 It's the ascid that you love. But Chuck calls it 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:01.040 aspirin because it's easier and he can call it that 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:05.200 legally because Aspurn's our proprietary epin m as we'll see 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:13.040 in that. Wow, that was something. Should we leave that in? Sure? 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.119 All right? I think that's our gift to the listeners. 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:18.560 That's some end of the year's aningus right there. That 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:23.880 means our our brains are entering the December mush phase. Yeah, boy, 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:25.360 is it. I'm looking forward to that break. I New 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:29.480 York can't wait. Yeah, everyone, I think we've said this before. 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:30.760 We take a few weeks off at the end of 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:34.119 the year, and it's just do not have to research 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:38.000 stuff for three weeks? Is really nice? You guys don't 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:41.280 notice because we make sure we record extra episodes in advance, 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:45.000 but we actually do. We we bulk up the kitty 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:49.040 as we say. That's right, So, um, just just real 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:51.560 quick to put a button in this. Felix Hoffman is 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.080 is um said to be the guy who created this 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:57.439 a guy named Arthur Ike and Gruen said later on 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:00.840 he actually wrote a letter to Bear from a concentration 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:05.000 camp during the Nazi um the Third Reich, because he 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:07.280 was Jewish, and he said, I was the one who 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.600 came up with this um, but my my records were 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.560 expunged by the Nazis. Other people are like, I'm not 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:15.800 sure if that's true or not. And a guy named 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.440 Heinrich Dresser, he said, it doesn't matter if it's true, 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:22.080 because I rediscovered this stuff. I told both of these 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:24.879 guys not to mess with this. They did anyway. I 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:28.080 took their research published, it didn't give them credit, and 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.320 now I am the one officially who is listed as 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:33.919 the inventor of asperin, even though it was really Felix 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:37.120 Hoffman and possibly Arthur Ike and Gruen who did Yeah, 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:39.240 And I guess you could do that if there isn't 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:42.280 any patents being filed. You could literally just sort of 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:48.119 publish something and steal someone's work. Yeah, which is I 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:49.680 don't know, it's kind of weird to think about, but 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.240 I guess the law was the law. But they did 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:56.159 file patents, and I mean Bear realized pretty quickly. This 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:57.840 is at the same time they were coming out with 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:01.600 heroin too, so Bear had to really big hits, like 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:04.359 right right with from what I read, within a couple 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:06.480 of weeks of each other, and Felix Hoffman was central 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.040 to both of them. But with aspirin, they were like, 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:12.359 this is kind of a big deal. Everybody loves salasilic 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:14.399 acid and the effects that it has, but they hate 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:17.000 the side effects and we just got rid of them. 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:19.119 So they patented it, and they came up with the 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:23.400 name aspirin. So the A is a nod to the 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:28.840 ascetic and hydride the acetal part. The spur is a 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:32.840 reference to the botanical names Spiria old Maria, which is 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:37.840 the name for meadows sweet. Another source of um salasilic acid, right, yeah, 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:41.440 so that would be Asperia. And then they added the 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.560 I N at the end because that was just sort 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:46.719 of one of the naming conventions for medicines, just like 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:52.399 we have cane like cocaine and cylin for antibiotics, they 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:56.600 would add an I N. So Aspoia became aspirin. Yeah. 0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:58.240 So if you picked up the box and you're like, 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:01.040 asper what is the So you get to the end 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:03.280 and see the I N and be like, oh, it's 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:07.359 a medicine, that's right. So Germany patents this in the 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:12.399 nineteen hundred in the United States. After patenting it in 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:15.120 Germany and everywhere they could they would try and get 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:19.280 a patent and it's been sort of an interesting story 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:23.040 since then because after World War One, Uh, and this 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:24.960 is I didn't even know this kind of stuff happened. 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:29.320 But um, Germany had to surrender their patents two countries 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:32.440 that had defeated them, and one of them was Aspirin, 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:35.800 so they couldn't prevent competitors all over the world from 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:39.119 making their own version. They did retain the trademark in 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:42.719 a few different countries. But that is, like you said earlier, 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:45.000 that is why you won't see aspirin or you don't 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:47.679 have to listpit list bit list it with a capital A, 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:51.000 because it is it's just one of those what do 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:54.200 you call it, proprietary epinem Yes, I love those. Yeah, 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:56.480 those are great. Yeah, you don't have to list it, 0:20:56.680 --> 0:21:01.840 you don't have to say aspens correct. But um, some 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:04.320 historians actually make the case, Chuck, that World War Two 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:08.440 happened because Germany was treated so harshly after World War 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:15.240 One that it led to such traconian um basically revenge 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:18.679 on Germany and the German people, that it allowed a 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:22.360 guy like Hitler to rise as this populist and gain control. 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:26.040 So yeah, I didn't know about the patents either, But 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:28.440 that kind of jibes and dovetails with that whole view. 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:32.000 It's like give us all your art and patents, right, 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:38.399 what else you can ask for? Land? Sure, I guess, 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:42.480 but that's sure. And they did do that. Remember the 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:47.120 the uh, the Nazi gold episode. We didn't so Um. 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:50.360 There's another side story to all this that came out 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:53.480 of World War One as well, um, and that there 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:58.280 was an embargo on phenol um by England. England said, hey, 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:00.200 we make a lot of feene all over here. It's 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:04.040 an active ingredient and a lot of stuff including aspirin, 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:07.240 but not just aspirin explosives to which is one big 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:09.560 reason why we want to keep a lid on this thing. 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:11.960 And we're going to make sure that Germany doesn't get 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:15.440 any And there wasn't anything official in the United States 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:19.600 banning anyone from selling to fhen Aal the Germany, but 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:22.679 it was definitely looked like as you were aiding people 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:25.399 who were at the very least the enemy of our enemy, 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:28.120 if not our enemy yet because we had an inner 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:31.200 World War One yet. Um. But that didn't stop Thomas 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:34.800 Edison from selling Feenal to the Germans during World War One? 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:38.000 Did it? No? He was Germany was looking at a 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:42.360 losing one of their most profitable drugs and said all right, 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:45.800 we're gonna send a spy over there, uh to secretly 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:49.200 buy fhenal from Thomas Edison because he's guy loves to 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:52.600 blow stuff up. He's allows you with it. And I 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:55.320 think that was just exposed when one of the conspirators 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:58.760 accidentally left his briefcase on the train, and it was 0:22:58.800 --> 0:23:03.119 a real black eye on not only Baia but Edison 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:06.119 as well. Yeah, and I mean like a lot of 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:08.280 people are like, oh wow, you know they were they 0:23:08.320 --> 0:23:11.760 were trying to keep the Germans from having aspirin during 0:23:11.800 --> 0:23:15.240 World War One again he could use phenal to create 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:17.520 T and T and other explosives. So that seems to 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:21.320 be the reason why, which makes Thomas Edison, he actually 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:24.320 created the phenal himself and then selling it to the 0:23:24.320 --> 0:23:28.159 Germans all the more shady, you know, totally. So it 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:31.879 was definitely a blemish on on Edison for sure. Um. 0:23:32.200 --> 0:23:34.880 And he eventually stopped selling it to them and then 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:38.560 donated the rest of the U. S. Army, I believe. Right, 0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:42.439 So Bayer is selling a lot of aspirin as a 0:23:42.480 --> 0:23:45.399 powder at first, um kind of like you know what 0:23:45.400 --> 0:23:47.760 we were talking about earlier, But they figured out that 0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:50.320 people and this is kind of how most a lot 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:53.160 of medicaments were powders at this point. And I think 0:23:53.200 --> 0:23:56.119 aspirin from Bayer was one of the first ones to 0:23:56.200 --> 0:23:58.040