episode_0126

Episode 126. The Aspirin Developer of Another World

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Where the hell did you go, Istina?

I spent a long time looking around the factory and the surrounding area, but it wasn’t easy to find Istina.

It was ridiculous, but I thought maybe he went to the rooftop to smoke a cigarette, so I went up to the rooftop.

Istina was lying on the roof.

“Hey. Are you kidding me?”

“Uh… … !”

Istina dropped the drink she was drinking.

No, that makes no sense. Istina was lying on the roof of the factory, on a sunbed, holding a glass of orange juice in her hand.

Not anymore. Istina got up from her sunbed and bowed her head in front of me.

“I told you to rest comfortably, not hide somewhere where they can’t see you and lie down on your back?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Come quickly. I have to work.”

“Yes… … .”

Istina followed me with a gloomy expression. Since I’m at the company headquarters, I should do some research.

He had promised the royal family that he would make other medicines. The next medicine to be made after penicillin was aspirin. In most cases, it was a medicine that was much more useful than antibiotics.

How many patients need painkillers?

This facility also had a laboratory, and in some ways it was better than my laboratory at the Academy, as it was a proper chemistry laboratory.

We soon arrived at the laboratory of the drug factory. We stood in front of the laboratory wearing plague doctor masks, gowns and gloves.

“What are you going to do today?”

“I’m going to make aspirin.”

This time, Istina tilted her head.

“What is aspirin?”

“What is it? A kind of medicine made from willow trees.”

Aspirin is a substance made by treating the wood of the willow tree with an acidic substance. The willow tree itself has properties similar to aspirin.

To put it simply, the willow tree itself contains a substance called salicin, or salicylic acid.

The chemical structure of aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid.

So, if you extract salicylic acid from willow and then acetylate it, you can make an analgesic, antipyretic, and antiplatelet agent.

“Why do you wear a plague doctor mask?”

“Today’s experiment requires using acid.”

The process of making aspirin is simpler than that of penicillin, but it is equally complex.

“Today, we will make acetylsalicylic acid by reacting acetic acid from vinegar and salicylic acid from willow trees.”

“Uh, what is acetylsalicylic acid?”

“The medicine we make.”

Those who are quick-witted will have noticed that acetic acid and salicylic acid combine to form acetylsalicylic acid. It’s just a matter of adding a functional group.

“Okay.”

Of course, the actual process is very complicated, but I will explain it to Istina up to this point. I am a practical person. All you need to know is that this reaction uses sulfuric acid as a catalyst.

Istina filtered the ground willow liquid through silk and wax paper. The translucent white liquid dripped into the beaker, one drop at a time.

“The willow sap is coming out. Do I have to extract aspirin as painstakingly as penicillin? Or is there another way?”

I shook my head.

“You can just boil aspirin.”

“Why?”

“It’s complicated. Penicillin is a polymer chain made up of hundreds of amino acids, so boiling it will denature the ionic amino acid interactions that make up the protein structure.”

“Yes?”

“Aspirin is made up of covalent bonds between 21 atoms, so you can’t destroy it by just boiling it.”

Istina opened her notebook, then closed it again. Why aren’t you writing anything down, again?

“Okay, I understand.”

“Don’t you write it in your notebook?”

“I don’t understand anything.”

I looked at Istina for a moment.

“To put it simply… … . Penicillin is much more complicated than aspirin. If you think of bacteria as a house, aspirin is like a pebble and penicillin is like a brick.”

“This is okay to boil, right?”

“Yeah.”

We prepared purified acetic acid.

Now mix the willow sap with this and add just one drop of sulfuric acid. Istina carefully picked up the bottle of sulfuric acid-

Bang!

The vial of sulfuric acid fell on the table and broke, splashing Istina’s hands and face.

It’s creepy.

Fortunately, thanks to the protective gear, he didn’t seem to be seriously injured, although the area where the sulfuric acid had been applied was slowly discoloring.

It’s a good thing the sulfuric acid isn’t that pure.

“Ugh, sorry.”

“You have to be careful. Are you hurt?”

“Yes.”

“If you weren’t wearing protective gear, you would have been seriously hurt. Go and get your mask and gown ready.”

Istina took off her mask and gloves, and put away her gown. This time, she almost got into big trouble. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be hurt at all.

“Is that okay?”

“Yes.”

I resumed my experiments while Istina was away. The synthesis of aspirin was not that complicated of an experiment. After all, it was an experiment that was originally successful in the 1800s in history.

Acetylsalicylic acid has a much lower solubility than acetic acid or salicylic acid, so it forms a kind of precipitation reaction, and a white powder appears.

“Oh, I see aspirin.”

“Already?”

Okay. I shook the beaker and tried to collect the white powder on one side of the beaker.

“Teacher Istina. Come quickly with the alcohol lamp. Find a new mask and gown and put them on.”

“Oh, yes.”

Not long after, Istina put on her new protective gear and turned on the alcohol lamp. The beaker containing the aspirin began to heat up.

Bubble bubble.

We looked at the beaker quietly. Only after the water in the beaker had boiled away would we be able to see the crystallized aspirin properly.

“What is this medicine used for?”

“An antipyretic and analgesic. Also prevents platelet aggregation.”

“There are a lot of things to do?”

It may seem like a lot, but it’s the same thing. There are elements that the circuits that generate heat, cause pain, and at the same time clump platelets share. It’s complicated to explain.

“By the way, if you use a painkiller other than opium, you can prevent the side effects of opium. And the price issue can’t be ignored.”

“Right.”

Prescribing opioid painkillers was quite a burden to doctors. In addition to the side effects of the opiates themselves, there were also problems such as drug dependence. Aspirin would probably help.

“It’s almost boiled.”

“Okay.”

The water in the beaker is almost gone.

I scraped the white aspirin powder remaining at the bottom of the beaker with a spoon. There was a white powder about the size of a fingernail left.

“The results came out something. I have to check if it’s aspirin, but… … . Teacher Istina. Did you write down how to make this? ”

Istina nodded vigorously.

“Written. Willow extract, purified acetic acid, a little sulfuric acid. Boil until a white powder remains. The result is just a white powder.”

“Yeah, good job.”

Come to think of it, I should’ve brought the alchemists to the experiment today. It doesn’t really matter though.

I should ask Luciana to research how to make this too. Anyway, I’ve already told you the method, so now it’s up to the alchemists to make it.

I should tell Teacher Luciana later.

****

The weekend was over quickly.

The penicillin production facility was busy.

Penicillin production is being carried out successfully. However, it is necessary to verify through animal testing whether there are any risks.

Just proving that mass production is possible is meaningful. Of course, it would be better if the current results could be sold.

“What is this?”

“This is aspirin. It is a medicine that will be made when penicillin sales start in earnest.”

“Wouldn’t it be difficult? The facilities seem a bit limited. I think we’ll need more equipment.”

“You can increase the equipment. It doesn’t matter if you boil aspirin. It has different properties from penicillin.”

This means the process is much simpler.

Luciana nodded.

“That would be much simpler. It only uses those two ingredients, right? A little bit of sulfuric acid?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you not need anything like culture?”

“The main material is willow wood.”

It doesn’t require cultivation, but you do need to get the wood from a willow tree. Willow trees aren’t hard to come by, though.

“Then… … . I will make this in the near future and feed it to animals.”

Penicillin was ridiculously complicated to develop, but aspirin was much simpler. This may be because the lab was well-equipped.

****

The three days passed faster than I thought.

The princess’s carriage procession is ready to return to the academy. Istina and I, of course, will have to return with the princess’s carriage procession.

I rode in the carriage back to the academy with Mint. Mint looked sleepy. The princess leaned her head on my shoulder and rubbed her eyes.

“I toured the factory yesterday. Today, I didn’t do anything special and just read a book because I was afraid I’d be disturbing people who were working.”

“Is that so?”

“I was bored all day. I had nothing to do. What was the teacher doing today? I didn’t see him.”

“I was in the lab.”

The princess looked out the carriage window.

“Are you going out now?”

“Yes.”

“When I return to the Academy, I will visit the teacher’s lab every day. The weather will soon get cold. We must stick together.”