ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

History of aspirin

Aspirin is a type of medicine that people take when they have pain or need to reduce fever. It is not like candy that you eat when you are feeling sad! It comes in the form of a pill that you take with water or other liquids.

Long time ago, people noticed that a special tree called willow tree helped them with their pain and fever. They would chew on the bark or brew it in water to make tea. They didn't know how it worked, but it did make them feel better.

Then a long time later, a man named Felix Hoffmann wanted to help his dad who suffered from arthritis, which made his joints hurt a lot. Mr. Hoffmann worked for a company called Bayer, which made medicines, and he discovered that if he added some other things to the stuff in willow tree bark, he could make a medicine that was stronger and more consistent in how much it helped people. He experimented a lot and finally came up with a new kind of medicine. It was called "acetylsalicylic acid" which was really hard for people to say, so they just called it aspirin.

Aspirin became really popular because it was so helpful for people with different kinds of pain. It was also a good medicine to help people with heart disease. There were many other companies who wanted to make aspirin too, and it was no longer just a secret medicine from the company Bayer. Today, aspirin is still being used by lots of people all around the world to help them feel better, and it's a very important medicine that doctors use to treat many different kinds of health problems.