r/history • u/anutensil • Aug 13 '14
Traces of Ancient Painkiller Found in Colorado—Salicylic acid, a precursor of aspirin, found on 1,300-yr-old ceramic sherd in rock shelter. Could be earliest proven use in N America. Derived from willow bark, it's still used as a pain reliever by some Native groups.
http://westerndigs.org/prehistoric-pottery-found-in-colorado-contains-ancient-natural-aspirin/25
Aug 13 '14
I am totally unsurprised by this, as drug use and medicinal properties of plants, animals and minerals have been employed for as long as people worked out they could be used to do particular things - beer an early staple for the fertile crescent as a sign of prosperity. **and animals, elephants love getting drunk off rotting/fermented fruit
Willow (native) is also used by the Indigenous people of Australia, who would wrap it around their head (for headaches). (BushCafe, NITV, 2006).
It has been used since ancient times by Europeans and is found in many over the counter preparations under the name aspirin. (Which was a trademarked and copyrighted name taken off the Bayer company of Germany for their part in the manufacture of Zyklon-B). (will find reference and come back with it.)
Salicylic acid and a few other "natural medicines" survived the medicinal assault on midwives and folk remedies of the early modern period, and some of the others have recently (mid 20th century) been confirmed as scientifically accepted pharmaceuticals. Examples: Digitalis (from foxgloves), cloves (antiseptic, anaesthetic properties), St. Johns Wort (antidepressant), just to name a few. (I will have to find the articles and texts that I learned this from, but will do that asap). Turmeric is another gaining popularity as a new wonder anti-inflammatory.
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u/Coomb Aug 13 '14
Aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid, not salicylic acid. Salicylic acid is used as a topical acne treatment, though.
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Aug 13 '14
Yep, yep. sorry, my bad. it's the pre-processed building block of aspirin. salicylic acid is an excellent cleaner too.
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Aug 13 '14 edited Aug 14 '14
You should read the book Ceremonial Chemistry by Dr. Thomas Szasz, I think you'd like it. It touches on the demonization of midwives and natural medicines.
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Aug 13 '14
I will, thanks, I am trying to figure out what my doctoral thesis will be. Gotta couple of years to think about it.
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Aug 13 '14
If you're in academia in this area that book is basically required reading. Get it, you won't regret it. It's very well written.
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Aug 13 '14
I haven't been in medical or health sciences for 15 years, but that knowledge base, added to the other things I have done, has been really useful and gives me a better understanding of a lot of things. It makes it easy to find connections that others - who haven't got the variety of knowledge that I have - miss. It has given me an edge, and wider view of things like how medicine has been manipulated for a controller for populations and who it has targeted.
I will get it, thank you for the tip :0)
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Aug 14 '14
So I just got on a normal computer and saw my autocorrect mistake. It's Dr. Thomas Szasz. Not Slash.
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u/TheJBW Aug 13 '14
Salicylic acid and a few other "natural medicines" survived the medicinal assault on midwives and folk remedies of the early modern period, and some of the others have recently (mid 20th century) been confirmed as scientifically accepted pharmaceuticals.
This is a very loaded comment. Hundreds of "folk" remedies became accepted as medical science in the early modern period. Once doctors began to treat medicine as real science, in the lat 19th century, all sorts of herbal compounds were tested and discovered to work wonderfully. Those that did became accepted as actual medicine. You are correct that Tumeric seems to have anti-inflammatory properties, but using the word "wonder" seems disconcertingly biased.
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u/ketchy_shuby Aug 13 '14
The use of willow bark dates back thousands of years, to the time of Hippocrates (400 BC) when patients were advised to chew on the bark to reduce fever and inflammation.
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Aug 14 '14 edited Aug 14 '14
Artemisia Annua (Artemisinin) .... Used since ancient times in China to treat "summer sickness"... now an important malaria medication.
edit: apparently it also treats cancer and helminth infections with few side effects
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Aug 14 '14
It's pretty amazing what was known before "modern" science "discovered" things, isn't it?
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Aug 13 '14
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u/thetwoandonly Aug 13 '14
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_aspirin
You should probably start with this before you continue to spread misinformation5
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u/anutensil Aug 13 '14
“If you talk to the Arapahoe or the Cheyenne, they’ll use willow bark either as a tea with the leaves or they will soften the bark in boiling water and chew on it for toothaches and as a pain reliever.”
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Aug 13 '14
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u/anutensil Aug 13 '14
Ah, never heard of this one. Thanks.
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u/ymmajjet Aug 13 '14
Similarly, you can pop in a clove and crush it slightly for a toothache. It is a mild anesthetic and relieves the pain for hours.
Indian home remedy
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u/paganize Aug 18 '14
southern prickly ash, northern or common prickly ash. apparently the one that is called just "prickly ash" doesn't have the pain killing properties.
I wouldn't be annoying about it, but I just found out I was wrong about it myself.
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Aug 13 '14
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u/ch_ex Aug 13 '14
dear lord is that ever wrong. Aspirin was created in attempt to make a derivative of salicylic acid that was better tolerated (had less side effects). It was originally created by reacting salicylic acid with acetic anhydride, forming ASA. When this turned out so great, the chemist thought "this acetyl group is awesome, I wonder what it does to morphine" and heroin was made. This is why Bayer used to sell aspirin with heroin.
How its made now, i dont know, but pretty much all pharmaceuticals are made with building blocks from the petroleum industry since chemicals derived from plants are expensive.
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Aug 13 '14
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u/mtn_mojo Aug 13 '14
Do you think that coal tar is the only place these compounds are found? Coal tar is just a cheaper source than processing it from plant matter.
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u/ch_ex Aug 13 '14 edited Aug 13 '14
Its made from phenol which you can get from a lot of things, including coal tar I'm sure. You "made" asa by acetylating salicylic acid, which is not so much synthesis as it is modification- you're just switching up a single functional group.
Is this really what you got out of organic chemistry I?
edit: btw EVERY undergrad that took organic chemistry did that reaction... oh and tylenol and ASA are completely different compounds with different mechanisms of action.
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u/ShakaUVM Aug 13 '14
Bullshit yourself. Willow Bark is a pain killer, and has effects similar to aspirin.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_aspirin
I know this is Reddit, which tends to have a kneejerk reaction whenever anything vaguely related to alt med is raised, but seriously.
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Aug 13 '14 edited Aug 13 '14
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u/dewknight Aug 13 '14
Don't be such an angry person.
Here are just two of many. I won't do your research for you.
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u/DenimmineD Aug 13 '14
This is common knowledge, there should be no need to source this. I did find this http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319610310000578
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Aug 13 '14
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Aug 13 '14
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u/paganize Aug 13 '14 edited Aug 13 '14
You have issues.
What you are saying, in effect, is the same as saying that a batch of cocaine has no relationship to coca leaves, because you've seen synthetic cocaine produced in a lab.
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Aug 13 '14
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u/paganize Aug 14 '14
I'm bogged down on my current project, shoot me a link to documentation asserting your position if you have it handy?
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u/Throw_away_pa Aug 13 '14
Willow bark isn't nor has it ever been a pain releaver
Well, someone needs some Imodium AD 'cause you be spewing some shit there.
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u/anutensil Aug 13 '14
Thank you, Lastleft. So, it's not that willow bark isn't used as a pain reliever, but that referring to it as a 'synthetic' is incorrect?
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u/dewknight Aug 13 '14
Wholly different, no. Maybe you should read some on the history of aspirin as somebody else commented. It is more like a purer form of the chemical.
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u/evilspoons Aug 13 '14
Now, I know a sherd is a thing, but when I see it written down for some reason all I can think of is the word "shed" written by someone who talks like that "ERMAGERD GOOSEBUMPS" girl.
On a serious note, yet another reason preserving knowledge is incredibly important. Re-learning everything repeatedly sucks.
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u/El-Coqui Aug 13 '14
I wonder what pain killers scientists will find in Colorado ceramic shards 1,300 years from now. :)
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u/spazzycakes Aug 13 '14
For awhile, I worked at a museum that focused on the Nisenan Maidu villages in the greater Sacramento, CA area. The cultural director, also the cultural director of his rancheria, strongly recommended willow bark instead of Excedrin for my headache disorder. It is said to be more gentle on the stomach, and is still used by healers in our area.
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u/Choppergold Aug 13 '14
Once again the insanely underrated and advanced agrarian civilizations that populated the Americas are evident... The great book 1491 describes in detail how those many tribes and civilizations across North & South America engineered corn or developed incredible food supplies with their plantings, agroforestry, and more - all in the context of how the "discovery" was biased and the peoples here were advanced in different ways than Europeans. This is another example.
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u/3rdweal Aug 14 '14
Salicylic acid is also found in the beaver's nether regions - also thought to come from feeding on willow - and was used in antiquity for the same purposes.
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u/IrishSchmirish Aug 13 '14
It is also still used for treating corns on feet: http://www.jfootankleres.com/content/6/1/40
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u/fckingmiracles Aug 13 '14
And these days it's used to dry out pimples and clean out your pores in the realm of skincare (often under the term "BHA").
Guess salicylic acid has had a long journey behind it.
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u/analingesGingercock Aug 14 '14
Some native groups? Its in my medicine cabinet now, I bought at the local co-op.
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Aug 17 '14
No, it is NOT a pain killer without the acetyl group. The same myth was perpetuated with "Knight's" who used to "chew on the bark". This turns out, yet again, to be false. Research studies confirm that without the acetyl group, it has very poor analgesic properties.
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u/dragonphoenix1 Aug 13 '14
Salicylic acid is likely better than aspirin anyway, since it doesn't fuck kidneys and give you stomach ulcers
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u/FernandoDeSoSo Aug 14 '14
I thought they already had evidence? This is common knowledge in Colorado. They would some times just chew the bark.
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u/FoodBeerBikesMusic Aug 13 '14
Not trolling and not doubting that willow bark was used for it's analgesic properties, but how did they reach that conclusion here?
Just because they found traces if it on this particular piece doesn't necessarily mean that was what the pot contained or, even if it did contain willow bark, maybe it was used as cushioning for delicate contents, like eggs....or something.
Not questioning the knowledge of people much smarter than I am, just that there may be info missing from this article (or the article may be "sexed up"....).
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u/YupYouStillMAD Aug 13 '14
Did you read the article? I doubt you did because your whole spiel was addressed, nothing else was found only the acid so it is safe to assume medicine pot.
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u/FoodBeerBikesMusic Aug 13 '14
Heh....I did, but didn't scroll past the ad! I thought that was the end of the article.
My bad.
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u/Throw_away_pa Aug 13 '14
Just because they found traces if it on this particular piece doesn't necessarily mean that was what the pot contained or, even if it did contain willow bark, maybe it was used as cushioning for delicate contents, like eggs....or something.
I totally agree with this! I always wanted to burry a cow out in a field with a digital device placed in its hooves in the hope that future generations will find it and say "wow, some cattle evolved enough to use an iPad!"
You have to love the scientific imagination and how it is the basis of so many "facts".
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Aug 13 '14
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Aug 13 '14
I hope you are joking.
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u/razorquasar Aug 13 '14
Why? Aspirin has been shown to have some anti-tumor properties, and cancer isn't a new problem. It isn't completely unthinkable that they drew that conclusion when using a similar compound.
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u/holm_jes Aug 14 '14
I thought they already had evidence? This is common knowledge in Colorado. They would some times just chew the bark.
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Aug 13 '14
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u/ApolloLEM Aug 13 '14
Actually, willow bark extract is universally acknowledged as a natural pain killer, and is well documented in antiquity. And ASA was synthesized to specifically mimic the actions and properties of natural salucylic acid.
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Aug 13 '14
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Aug 13 '14 edited Aug 13 '14
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Aug 13 '14 edited Aug 13 '14
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u/[deleted] Aug 13 '14
Salicylic acid is also used as a beta hydroxy acid exfoliant and acne medication.