Wonder Drugs

Over the years, thousands of different pharmaceutical compounds have been synthesized, have saved countless lives, and have affected history by various other means.  One particular pharmaceutical that has changed the way we live is the pain-relieving molecule aspirin.  Also known as acetyl salicylic acid, aspirin was first produced by the German Bayer dying company, and begins its formation as salicyl alcohol (a phenol derivative), which is produced from the flowers of meadowsweet, or Spiraea ulmaria.  The alcohol is then oxidized to become salicylic acid, whose hydrogen atom on its hydroxide group is replaced with an acetyl group (CH3CO), to form its final product, aspirin.  During World War I, Bayer bought large amounts of phenol so that they could manufacture enough aspirin, which took away from the phenol supply of other natons.  This meant that the phenol-based explosive compound of picric acid would be harder to produce, which hastened the the development of TNT-based explosives in these countries.  After over a century since it was first marketed by Bayer in 1899, aspirin has become the most widely used of all drugs for treating illness and injury, with over forty million pounds of aspirin being produced annually in the U.S. alone.

Two other pharmaceuticals, sulfa drugs and penicillans, both antibiotics, have also shaped human history as they have saved millions of lives in fighting off various diseases.  Sulfa drugs, or sulfanilamides, can be administered as the dye protosil red, which will then break down in the body to form this useful antibiotic.  There are several derivatives to the sulfanilamide molecule that serve various purposes: sulfapyridine is used to fight pneumonia, sulfathiazole for gastrointestinal infections, and sulfacetamide for urinary tract infections.  Penicillans, such as penicillin G, penicillin O, ampicillin, amoxicillin, and cloxacillin, also have widespread imlications in the field of medicine.  This family of pharmaceuticals is effective in fighting against bacteria such as those that cause meningitis, gonorrhea, and streptococcal infections such as strep throat.  With the countless lives these pharmaceuticals have saved, which can be seen from the life expectancy increase by over thirty years since the beginning of the early modern era, these molecules have the right to be called wonder drugs.