Health: from aspirin to cancer-fighting drugs
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| For some, pharmaceuticals mean a better quality of
life. For others, they mean the difference between life and death.
In both cases, aromatics play an essential part – whether we
are talking about something as apparently mundane as aspirin, or life-saving,
cancer-fighting drugs. Cumene and phenol, for example, both produced from benzene, are used as a starting material to make aspirin and penicillin, one of the first and still one of the antibiotic agents most widely used to treat a wide variety of diseases, 
many of them life-threatening, such as meningitis, pneumonia, and
diphtheria.Some aromatic resins are used in drug purification, making it easier for scientists to experiment and create new drugs, for manufacturers to mass-produce drugs, and to keep costs down – a definite advantage for us, the consumers. Amongst many other things, drug purification allows to extract only the therapeutic component– the disease-fighting part – from the overall plants, fermented starches or other complex chemical brews from which most drugs are derived, and to remove organic impurities from the result. So far, these resins and these technologies have been used in antibiotics, as well as in the development of therapies treating conditions such as arthritis, AIDS, and various forms of cancer. Also, seriously injured people can recover a considerable level of mobility thanks to the plastics and resins in artificial joints and limbs. An invaluable material, plastics are yet cheap enough to be suitable for making disposable syringes, containers for storing blood and vaccines and other apparatus which are used only once to avoid the risk of contamination. Today, we take these medical advances for granted. And that's the way it should be. But if you should one day wonder what aromatics are all about, they are a good example. Aromatics are not only about sports shoes and refrigerators and CDs – but also about life-saving medicines and devices. Back to Home Page |
