Aspirin Essay

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Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is a type of acid categorized as a salicylate, this acid works as a pain reliever in the body because once digested it lowers the amount of substances already in the body that cause pains, fevers and flare ups. Also, this chemical is administered to people for prevention of heart attacks, strokes, and angina which is also known as severe chest pains. Aspirin is created by chemically synthesizing salicylic acid through the acetylation with acetic anhydride, synthesizing aspirin comprises of three steps, synthesis of it, isolation and purification of it, and testing the purity of the aspirin made. Synthesizing aspirin is done by reacting salicylic acid and acetic anhydride with a catalyst, in which phosphoric acid (H3PO4) is used. After the aspirin has been prepared (synthesized), it must be isolated and purified. Aspirin is insoluble in cold water, therefore it can be isolated by filtering the cold solution product of the reaction. In order to remove the unreacted salicylic acid, acetic anhydride, acetic acid product and phosphoric acid the solution must be purified, the acetic anhydride is decomposed simply through the use of adding water after the reaction has finished (C4H602 + H20  2C2H402). Acetic acid and phosphoric acid can be removed from the solution by soaking the aspirin in cold water since they are soluble in water. The final ending step of purifying the aspirin is through a process referred to as recrystallization. This is when the aspirin is placed in warm ethanol, the solution is cooled, and the aspirin crystallizes leaving the salicylic acid and other impurities inside the solution. Lastly testing the purity of the finished product is achieved mainly from a melting point test a common...

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...ing what the main ingredient responsible for relieving pain actually was and how much of it was contained inside each pill to effectively relieve pain. The active ingredient that is contained in aspirin is acetyl acid and the amount of active ingredient that is present will directly determine the strength of the aspirin. This question is significant and worthy of being investigated because the pharmaceutical industry is very large and people usually just buy it based on what they see on the ad for the medicine, suppose the ingredients were wrong or under dosed so they actually never work at all, the end result of the research that I am conducting will be helpful in real life situations to help figure out which brand of painkiller actually has the correct dosages or most effective dosages so that you would know what is best to purchase and ingest for optimum relief.

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