Acetylsalicylic acid, commonly known as aspirin, is an analgesic (pain-killing), antipyretic (fever-reducing), and anti-inflammatory sold without a prescription as tablets, capsules, powders, or suppositories. The drug reduces pain and fever, is believed to decrease the risk of heart attacks and strokes, and may deter colon cancer and help prevent premature birth.Often called the wonder drug, aspirin can have serious side effects, such as irritating the stomach lining, causing Reye's syndrome in children between the ages of three and 15 years, adversely affecting breathing in people with sinusitis or asthma, and possibility delaying the onset of labor in full term pregnancies. More more accidental poisoning deaths in children under five years of age and 10% of all accidentalor suicidal episodes reported by hospitals are related to aspirin.

In the mid-to-late 1700s, English clergyman Edward Stone chewed on a piece of willow bark and discovered its analgesic property. The...