For centuries, natural medications were used to ease pain and fever. One such natural remedy came from the bark of willow trees. It was used in Ancient Greece by Hippocrates and was also used by the Native Americans. Brewing the bark to make a tea or even sucking on the bark would extract a chemical that came to be known as salicin.
As medicine and scientific research advanced, a common drug was developed: acetylsalicylic acid. C9H8O4. Most of us have this in our medicine cabinets. It’s a stand-alone medication or it could be combined with other drugs. The more familiar name is aspirin.
On this day in 1899, Bayer, a German company, patented aspirin. It was developed by Bayer employee, Felix Hoffmann. Initially, it was dosed a gram at a time in powder form. By 1915, the tablet form had been created and was distributed worldwide.
“Two years later, when Bayer’s patent expired during the First World War, the company lost the trademark rights to aspirin in various countries. After the United States entered the war against Germany in April 1917, the Alien Property Custodian, a government agency that administers foreign property, seized Bayer’s U.S. assets. Two years later, the Bayer company name and trademarks for the United States and Canada were auctioned off and purchased by Sterling Products Company, later Sterling Winthrop, for $5.3 million…
“In 1994, Bayer bought Sterling Winthrop’s over-the-counter business, gaining back rights to the Bayer name and logo and allowing the company once again to profit from American sales of its most famous product.”1
Today, aspirin is used for a multitude of ailments and preventative care. It is still used for pain and fever but is also used for “rheumatic fever, and inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, pericarditis, and Kawasaki disease. Lower doses of aspirin have also been shown to reduce the risk of death from a heart attack, or the risk of stroke in people who are at high risk or who have cardiovascular disease, but not in elderly people who are otherwise healthy. There is evidence that aspirin is effective at preventing colorectal cancer, though the mechanisms of this effect are unclear… Aspirin is also used long-term to help prevent further heart attacks, ischaemic strokes, and blood clots in people at high risk.”2
We know that the modern pharmacy and pharmaceuticals haven’t been around for long in the scope of history. People tried some things they shouldn’t have and found it out the hard way. Others, though, utilized some of the things God put in nature as a medicine. Just consider these Scriptures.
Jeremiah 8:22 “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” Wheaton College president Phillip Ryken, writes, “Gilead was the land just east of the Jordan River. It was known for its healing balsams… Scholars have been unable to determine how the balm of Gilead was made, but it seems to have been a soothing, aromatic resin made from a tree or a plant. It might be compared to aloe vera.”3 The 17th c. Biblical scholar, Samuel Bochart, would disagree. He writes, “‘Balm’ was not the product of the balsam tree, which was indigenous in Arabia Felix, not imported into Judea before the time of Solomon, and growing only in the neighbourhood of Jericho; but the resin of the Turpentine tree, known to have healing qualities, and sufficient to answer the prophet’s purpose.”4 Whatever the balm may have been, it was useful as a medicine.
Isaiah 38:21 “For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.” You’ll never look at a package of Fig Newtons the same way again!
Luke 10:33-34 “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, (34) And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.” The wine would have been used as an antiseptic and the oil would serve as a barrier to germs as well as keeping the skin supple. It all would have aided the healing process.
Proverbs 16:24 “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.”
Proverbs 24:13 “My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste.” The medicinal properties of honey have been well documented.
And, if you can’t find any aspirin, figs, oil, wine, or honey, you can certainly use this great medicine found in Proverbs 17:22. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”
1https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bayer-patents-aspirin
2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirin
3Enduring Word Commentary
4Ultimate Cross Reference Treasury
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