Aspirin is the most used medicine worldwide. About 80 million pounds of aspirin are produced and 100 billion tablets consumed each year. Aspirin reduces pain, fever, and inflammation. It lowers the risk of heart attack, stroke, and certain cancers.
After more than a century of human use, researchers are still discovering how aspirin affects the body.
For thousands of years, people in many different cultures used plants containing aspirin-like compounds. For example, about 2500 years ago the Greek physician Hippocrates prescribed willow bark to treat fever and pain. For centuries in Europe, people grew meadowsweet to treat pain and inflammation. Willow and meadowsweet contain high levels of aspirin-like compounds called salicin and methyl salicylate, respectively. Aspirin, salicin, and methyl salicylate are all rapidly converted into a substance called salicylic acid (SA for short) in the human body.
By the 1800s, scientists knew that SA was the component derived from plants that relieved pain and fever. However, its long-term use at high doses caused stomach problems in some people.

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