Alexander Kobulnicky

Aspirin
Acrylic on canvas
11” x 14”
2010
$350

Bayer’s discovery of aspirin in 1897 rang in the age of modern medicine. Aspirin immediately became the gold standard painkiller, antipyuretic, and anti-inflammatory for the next sixty years. Its uses are so manifold, and its side-effects so mild that it is still known as the original “wonder drug,” a treatment for anything under the sun. (Aspirin originally shared this flattering designation with Bayer’s sister product, Heroin, introduced in 1895 — like aspirin, a souped-up, acetylated painkiller, but with a less noble career.

Aspirin is derived from salicylic acid, which is a major constituent of willow bark. Tincture of willow bark was known to the Ancient Greeks to help fever and pain — but as always, side effects stood in the way. Salicylic acid is quite caustic. (Hence its use in acne treatments, which use salicylic acid to scorch off the excess derma) Ingested, it causes diarrhea and internal bleeding. Acetylsalicylic acid is much less toxic to the GI tract than its predecessor, although regular aspirin use, or aspirin overdose, can have dire consequences.

Lately, aspirin has fallen out of favor, and aspirin chewing gum is a thing of the past. Acetaminophen and ibuprofen have poached its market share, and a few too many arthritis patients have “died in a pool of their own blood“. But the original wonder drug is still spawning more wonders, as science has recently determined that taking tiny doses of aspirin every day makes patients with cardiovascular disease 20% less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke. Like chocolate or red wine, we expect science to unearth new miracles in aspirin every day.

These molecules are rendered as space-filling models, in a natural, low-energy conformation, and displayed from an angle that shows off as much of their structure as possible. The atoms are color-coded, with carbon being black, hydrogen white, and oxygen red. They are painted in artist-quality acrylics, on gessoed canvas.