Aspirin discovered accidentally

Friedrich Bayer opened his own dye business, which became very successful. In the past, all dyes had come from organic materials, but in 1856 coal tar dyes were discovered. He died on May 6, 1880, while the company was still in the fabric dye business. The company went on to employ chemists to come up with innovative dyes and products and in 1897 that’s exactly what one of the chemists, Felix Hoffmann, did. While experimenting with a waste product of one of the dye components to find relieve for his father’s rheumatism, Hoffmann chemically synthesized a stable form of salicylic acid powder. The compound became the active ingredient in a pharmaceutical wonder product: Aspirin. The title was named “a” from acetyl, and “spir” from the spirea plant, meadowsweet the source of salicin. However, Hoffmann did not discover “aspirin.” He “rediscovered” it after studying experiments on acetylsalicylic acid made 40 years earlier by French chemist Charles Gergardt. In 1837, Gergardt produced good results, but the procedure was difficult and time consuming. He decided that it was not practical, and set it aside. But Gerhardt knew quite well about potential cures of acetylsalicylic acid because it had been proclaimed for more than 3 500 years.