How to make Aspirin from Willow Bark

I think the power of herbs in a survival situation is often very over looked. It is amazing what is under your feet in the way of herbs and food. Learning some basic techniques is a helpful skill to have. You may be very surprised to find many of the plants in your own garden or local park have strong and useful herbal properties.

Below is a video on how to make salicin closely related to Asprin. To make it you need to strip about 2 tea spoons of inner bark from a willow branch. You will need to simmer it in water for about ten minutes and it is ready to drink. The bark can be collected, dried and stored for later use.

An adult should drink no more than four cups a day and if you have any adverse effects to Asprin it is best avoided completely. It does not cause as much irritation to the stomach as conventional Aspirin and is worth keeping some at home stored in a jar.

You can use the bark from several varieties of the willow tree, including white willow, european willow, black willow, pussy willow, crack willow, purple willow, and others. So give the video below a watch and learn how to make aspirin from willow bark

prepforshtf.com...

This is a very cool thread OP. Thanks for sharing. (Thumbs Up)

Steep willow bark for ten minutes to make aspirin tea.

I just happen to have a pussywillow tree in my front yard. I think i will try this next time i run out of ibuprophen. Thanks for the video!

all you really need to do is chew the bark .
the boiling just makes aspa tea ?? lol

Kind of a misnomer (Your title). Aspirin is AcetylSalicylicAcid so without the acetyl group it is not the same thing. To make this you need to mix Acetic Anhydride with SalicylicAcid with a Phosphoric Acid catalyst.

The difference between c7h6o3 to c9h8o4



wwwchem.csustan.edu...

If you had the reagents though in theory you could do all this from a bunch of bark. However, extracting salicin with any real purity remains elusive to the novice chemist (but not to Bayer)…

So perhaps your tea is the best idea.

reply to post by boncho


Well as a great replacement for aspirin, I'm sure the chemicals added to Bayers form of aspirin are not needed or readily available when surviving on the land. Willow trees have been used for many millenia, and way before BigPharma decided to profit from it.

I say good find! More people should know how to relieve ailments from the plants and environment around them. Maybe this will spur a person to grow a tree, and that would have multiple benefits beyond its use as a pain killer.

Excellent video!


*S&F*

You can go to the supplement store and buy willow bark capsules dirt cheap.

No side effects like aspirin and it's more accurate than stripping a tree.

reply to post by havok

Well as a great replacement for aspirin, I'm sure the chemicals added to Bayers form of aspirin are not needed or readily available when surviving on the land. Willow trees have been used for many millenia, and way before BigPharma decided to profit from it.

You realize the chemicals "BigPharma" adds to things are found in nature right? Not too mention cyanide being found in nature, (in plants just the same as SalicylicAcid) so…

In any case, big pharma tried to shelve ASA because they wanted to give everyone heroin instead. OMG suppression!!!

reply to post by boncho


The context of my post was misunderstood...

The chemicals used by BigPharma are not readily available. Period. Are they found in nature? Sure but that isn't my point. You can't just find Acetic Anhydride in flasks around your backyard and provide the necessary solution to create Salycylic acid. In addition to the necessary procedure to procure Cyanide from plants. Not necessarily an easy task, or safe. *Ahem* probably deadly.

Ahh but a Willow tree is abundant in temperate climates and you can boil it easily. Water and fire are much easily prepared than a chemical solution produced by a reflux method.

Where you construed that with heroin or oppression, is beyond me.

reply to post by purplemer

Very cool.
Thanks

How have you been? You have been MIA lately in the other forums.

reply to post by havok

In addition to the necessary procedure to procure Cyanide from plants. Not necessarily an easy task, or safe. *Ahem* probably deadly.

Eating bitter almonds is about as easy as eating willow bark.

Bitter almonds may yield from 4–9 mg of hydrogen cyanide per almond.[27][28] Extract of bitter almond was once used medicinally, but even in small doses, effects are severe, and in larger doses can be deadly; the cyanide must be removed before consumption.[29]

*

Ahh but a Willow tree is abundant in temperate climates and you can boil it easily. Water and fire are much easily prepared than a chemical solution produced by a reflux method.

Refluxing is just boiling with a condenser on top. You can makeshift this kind of thing out of random household appliances. But in any case, I imagine you are referring to something more complicated like vacuum distillation (where unless you have a vacuum pump [which most people don't have] you won't be able to pull a full vacuum).

Where you construed that with heroin or oppression, is beyond me.

I was being sarcastic with that sentence. Ignorance in chemistry and things like "BigPharma is killing us with poisons! They used ______ to make _____…" Well, it just gives me a headache.

There's nothing wrong with old time cures, herbs, and etc. I used them myself. No reason to perpetuate common myths though. Just as these things were used thousands of years ago, there are tribes in various parts of the world still using basic chemistry (The principles entirely lost on them) to produce, "Natural" medicine.

midnightstar
all you really need to do is chew the bark .
the boiling just makes aspa tea ?? lol

Yes you can just chew the bark. When my Dad was ill as a kid my nan would send him out to chew on the bark of the sally..

reply to post by boncho


Well boncho! A gratuitous thank you is in order then.
Not only did you elaborate on my second post, you futher validated my thoughts and even described methods not usually known by laymen. But I again say that it is much easier to get pain relief from willow than any other form. In survival, of course, where nothing is available but knowledge and limited tools. (I work in a chemical distillation plant)

Good job!

reply to post by macman


Hello macman.

I am glad you enjoyed the thread. Did not realize anyone would notice me missing. All good in my world. I have been away working a lot of recent and have not had as much time as normal to be on ATS.

Okay so from what I've read the Acetyl helps the salicylic acid bypass the bloodbrain barrier more efficiently so that's why aspirin tends to work better for headaches then just boiling willow bark.

I wonder then, in a situation where you couldn't effectively create aspirin I wonder if eating grapefruit would work in expanding the bark's effects?

Just a thought.

Still an interesting thread, thanks for sharing.

havok
reply to post by boncho

 

The context of my post was misunderstood...

The chemicals used by BigPharma are not readily available. Period. Are they found in nature? Sure but that isn't my point. You can't just find Acetic Anhydride in flasks around your backyard and provide the necessary solution to create Salycylic acid. In addition to the necessary procedure to procure Cyanide from plants. Not necessarily an easy task, or safe. *Ahem* probably deadly.

Ahh but a Willow tree is abundant in temperate climates and you can boil it easily. Water and fire are much easily prepared than a chemical solution produced by a reflux method.

Where you construed that with heroin or oppression, is beyond me.

I once saw a TV show where a "herbalist" was making a 'refreshing tea' out of peach leaves and she described the taste as a delightful sweet almond taste and gave rave reviews as to its health benefits.

That taste is Hydrocyanic acid, guys - Cyanide!

People have been poisoned by fresh peach leaf tea but this 'expert' herbalist didn't know that and was urging the public to consume it. My guess is that neither did the staff who allowed it to be televised.

You can also get cyanide from Peach pits, Apricot pits and Apple seeds but fortunately they aren't very palatable or digestible.

Also, are you aware that Beethoven was taking Salicylic acid (The same stuff you are extracting)? His autopsy showed that it had caused him kidney failure and was believed to be the primary cause of death.

So please, don't concentrate and overuse any 'natural' ingredient without a little research. The truth is that 'natural' can be (and often is) more dangerous than the stuff pushed by Big Pharma.

reply to post by chr0naut


The main hypothesis for Beethoven's death was lead poisoning which has now been ruled a maybe not as well. There is no evidence of Salicylic acid being the cause and that's never been the most supported hypothesis.

In regard to some plants being poisonous the only thing I have to say to that is "duh".

All it takes is minimal research in either a library or online and you can read on what toxins are found in plants.

If people consumed peach leaves prior to researching them that's their own fault.

Many fruit bearing plants have toxic leaves, seeds etc. Tomato leaves are toxic if made into tea.

However, that still doesn't mean there aren't many useful and free plants that can be utilized in the wild. The primary step in looking for them is education, which is also free.

OrphanApology
reply to post by chr0naut

 

The main hypothesis for Beethoven's death was lead poisoning which has now been ruled a maybe not as well. There is no evidence of Salicylic acid being the cause and that's never been the most supported hypothesis.

In regard to some plants being poisonous the only thing I have to say to that is "duh".

All it takes is minimal research in either a library or online and you can read on what toxins are found in plants.

If people consumed peach leaves prior to researching them that's their own fault.

Many fruit bearing plants have toxic leaves, seeds etc. Tomato leaves are toxic if made into tea.

However, that still doesn't mean there aren't many useful and free plants that can be utilized in the wild. The primary step in looking for them is education, which is also free.

The initial COD for Beethoven was believed to be lead poisoning but a recent analysis by X-Ray Fluorescence of skull fragments shows that was not the case. Something ignored as COD at the initial autopsy time (but was noted) was calcareous growths on the kidneys, probably leading to renal papillary necrosis. Since the initial COD is ruled out, the next most possible one is the most likely.

Getting back to the topic, the traditional use and administration of Salicylic acid is by chewing on branches. If this is effective, then concentration by producing a tea would, effectively, be over-dosage.

Chewing on a bit of Willow branch also does not require ANY equipment or preparation but is available to treat pain "on the spot".

reply to post by purplemer


Great thread purp.. Handy info to have in a SHTF scenario. You can also make aspirin from Meadowsweet. A pretty plant with a creamy white flower and a sweet smell. It is common throughout the UK and can be dried and stored..

reply to post by chr0naut


Chr0naut a person can get kidney failure from too much Aspirin use, also.

I am merely stating that in a survival atmosphere, willow branches may help to alleviate pains when nothing else can be found or known about. It is a great deal better than just having nothing at all. Even the video says never to exceed 4 doses a day. I would imagine that dosage is a bit much when taken for more than a few days.