Aspirin also is known as Acetylsalicylic Acid is one of the most common and most consumed painkillers in America. Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is extracted from salicylic acid.
Aspirin is an over the counter medicine found in most pharmacies. It is known to relieve pain and prevent heart attacks. In ancient Greece, salicylic acid was used to relieve pain. However, aspirin was invented by Felix Hoffmann in 1897.
He wanted to find a substance or a medicine that could help his father with his arthritis. Felix studied the notes and experiments of a French chemist named Charles Gergard and rediscovered acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin).Aspirin chemical formula is C9H8O4. One of its active ingredients, salicylic acid was found in the back of a willow tree when first discovered. Many scientists would extract the salicylic acid from the willow tree and made the compound synthetically. However, now aspirin is manufactured or/and synthesized.
Aspirin is manufactured at the Bayer Co. where Felix Hoffmann worked when he discovered aspirin. It varies how aspirin is manufactured but the production of the hard tablet of aspirin only requires four ingredients, acetylsalicylic acid, water, lubricant, and water. Aspirin comes in many different ways, they can come as chewable tablets or hard tablets. The weight, thickness, shape all depends on the dosage being made. As mentioned before, aspirin consisted of only four ingredients. However, the color or shape of the hard tablet there is other ingredients involved when making the tablet such as flavor agents and coloring agents. During the manufacturing process, aspirin tablets of the same dosage are made together in the same batches.
The manufacturing process of hard aspirin tablets known as slugging begins by weighing the cornstarch and the lubricant in different containers to know if both meet the predetermined specifications of the right amount of dosage is made. Once the weighing the ingredients is done, the mixing process begins. The cornstarch (an active ingredient of lubricant) is mixed with cold water then heated and stirred until a translucent paste is formed.
The cornstarch is later mixed with the other ingredients. Mixing blends the ingredients as well as expels the air of the mixture.
