Salicylic acid

Abstract

Plants are the source of many substances used in treating human disease and discomfort. One of the earliest known plant-derived therapeutic compounds originated from the bark of willow trees (Salixspp.) (Fig. 1), which in traditional medicine was chewed to provide relief from pain and inflammation, a practice that can be traced to over two thousand years ago. This ancient remedy was described in writings by the Greek physician Hippocrates (Fifth Century B.C.) and the physician and botanist Pedanius Dioscorides (First Century A.D.), who described the ingestion of willow leaves and bark as a means for relieving pain (20).