Plant extracts, including willow bark and spirea, of which salicylic acid was the active ingredient, had been known to help alleviate headaches, pains, and fevers since antiquity. The father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, who lived sometime between 460 BC and 377 BC, left historical records describing the use of powder made from the bark and leaves of the willow tree to help these symptoms.
Trees that relief pain:
The leaves and bark of the willow tree have been mentioned in ancient texts from Assyria, Sumer and Egypt as a remedy for aches and fever, and the Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates wrote about its medicinal properties in the fifth century BC. Native Americans across the American continent relied on it as a staple of their medical treatments, because willows contain salicin, a substance that chemically resembles aspirin. It temporarily relieves headache, stomachache, and other body pain. Salicin is metabolized into salicylic acid in the human body, which is a precursor of aspirin.
Other trees with aspirin qualities:
30 mL (about 1 fl oz) of oil of wintergreen is equivalent to 55.7 g of aspirin,
or about 171 adult aspirin tablets (US). This conversion illustrates
the potency and potential toxicity of oil of wintergreen even in small
quantities.
The bark contains aspirin-like compounds and should not be used
by anyone sensitive to aspirin.
Aspens and other members of the Populus genus contain salicylates, compounds related to aspirin.
