What is the history of salicylic acid?
The benefits of salicylic acid were first recognized over 2,000 years ago when ancient healers found that bark stripped from a willow tree and steeped on hot water could alleviate the pain of a tribe member suffering with a headache, toothache or even a fever, which at that time could be a potential cause of death. If a high fever could be lowered before it killed the patient, it would allow the body time to heal and overcome the infection. From this early understanding – that there was something in willow bark – chemists, thousands of years later, were motivated to isolate and identify salicylic acid. As you may be aware, the first “wonder drug,” aspirin, was synthesized by chemical modification of salicylic acid. Very shortly after, physicians, primarily those in Europe, began incorporating salicylic acid into skin care treatment. Remember, this was over a hundred years ago – neither antibiotics nor cortisone had yet been developed. Salicylic acid was truly the first miracle drug. Do
