Making pain history
From ancient folk remedy to the wonder drug of the early industrial age and beyond. Mike Sutton traces the remarkable history of aspirin
Around 250 years ago, a riverside walk was the first step in the story of asprin. The story takes in the rise of the global pharmaceutical industry, two world wars, one Nobel prize and the drug is still the most widely taken in the world, with new therapeutic uses still emerging. But it all started when Edward Stone announced that powdered willow bark was a helpful treatment for malaria.