What is the Difference Between Aspirin and Salicylic Acid

The阿司匹林和水杨酸之间的关键区别是水杨酸有苦味,麦吗es it unsuitable to be used directly as a medication, whereas aspirin does not have the bitter taste that most derivatives of salicylic acid contain.

Aspirin is an important medication. It belongs to the group of salicylate derivatives. Generally, salicylic acid and its derivatives have an unpleasant bitter taste, which makes them unsuitable for direct use as medicine. However, aspirin is made into a medication by eliminating the bitter-tasting components of salicylates.

1.Overview and Key Difference
2.What is Aspirin
3.What is Salicylic Acid
4.Aspirin vs Salicylic Acid in Tabular Form
5.Summary – Aspirin vs Salicylic Acid

What is Aspirin?

阿司匹林是一种可用于减轻疼痛，发烧或炎症的药物。It is also known asacetylsalicylic acid或者ASA. There are some specific inflammation conditions where we can use aspirin for the treatment. These include川崎病, pericarditis, and rheumatic fever. We can classify aspirin as anonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug or NSAID. It works similar to all other NSAIDs; in addition, it can suppress the normal functioning of platelets.

Aspirin vs Salicylic Acid in Tabular Form

Figure 01: The Chemical Structure of Aspirin

If we use aspirin shortly after a heart attack, it can reduce the risk of death. We can also use aspirin for long-term application in order to help prevent any further heart attacks and some other diseases like ischaemic strokes and blood clots in high-risk people. Typically, the effect of the drug starts within 30 minutes after the administration.

Furthermore, aspirin is useful as ananalgesic, antipyretic, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug and has an anti-platelet effect through theinhibition of the COX activityin the platelet in order to prevent the production of the thromboxane A2 content. Thromboxane A2 can act by binding platelets together during the process of coagulation, vasoconstriction, and bronchoconstriction.

The bioavailability of aspirin is about 80-100%, while the protein ability of this drug is about 80-90%. The metabolism of this drug occurs in the liver, but some of it may get hydrolyzed to salicylates in the gut wall. The elimination half-life of this drug is about 2-3 hours, and the excretion occurs through urination, and as sweat, saliva, and feces.

阿司匹林可能会有一些副作用，其中通常包括胃部不适，胃溃疡（稀有），胃血出血和哮喘恶化。

What is Salicylic Acid?

水杨酸是一种有机化合物，作为一种有助于去除皮肤外层的药物非常重要。这种物质看起来像是无味的无色晶体固体。该化合物的化学式为C7H6O3，其摩尔质量为138.12 g/mol。水杨酸晶体的熔点为158.6°C，在200°C下分解。这些晶体可以在76°C下进行升华。水杨酸的IUPAC名称为2-羟基苯甲酸。

水杨酸作为治疗疣，头皮屑，痤疮和其他皮肤疾病的药物很重要，因为它能够去除皮肤的外层。因此，水杨酸是用于制造护肤产品的主要成分。例如，在某些洗发水中可以治疗头皮屑很有用。它在制造Pepto-Bismol（一种用于治疗胃肠道疾病的药物）中很重要。此外，水杨酸也可作为食物防腐剂。

What is the Difference Between Aspirin and Salicylic Acid?

Aspirin and many other derivatives of salicylic acid are useful as medicine for different diseases. The key difference between aspirin and salicylic acid is that salicylic acid has a bitter taste that makes it unsuitable to be used directly as a medication, whereas aspirin does not have the bitter taste that most derivatives of salicylic acid contain. Moreover, aspirin is used to reduce pain, fever, or inflammation, while salicylic acid is used to treat warts, dandruff, acne, and other skin disorders due to its ability to remove the outer layer of the skin.

Below is a summary of the difference between aspirin and salicylic acid in tabular form for side by side comparison.