†Felix Hoffman worked for the Aldolf von Bayer company in Elberfeld, Germany. He wanted to find a drug for his father's rheumatoid arthritis, and in 1893 he synthesized a drug called acetyl salicylate, more commonly known as aspirin. It was based on salicylic acid, present in willow bark and synthesised 34 years earlier, but gentler on the stomach. It was introduced into medicine in 1899 by Heinrich Dreser and is now used as an everyday pain killer and anti-inflammatory drug.
