From Aspirin to Viagra : Stories of the Drugs That Changed the World

From Aspirin to Viagra, insulin to penicillin, and vaccines to vitamin supplements, drugs have become part of our everyday lives. This staggering global industry wasn't born overnight; advancements in pharmaceutical science have been happening for a long while, over the course of decades and even centuries. This book tells the history of ten prominent substances and how they came to be common household names. It shows how the creation of such influential drugs often began with the right person at the exactly right--or wrong!-- time. The chapters tell the stories of geniuses and charlatans; scholars and amateurs; advances won through hard work or pure luck; and ultimately, the handful of resounding successes that revolutionized a global industry. Beyond the pioneers of the most famous drugs in our culture, the book analyzes how our perspective on medical treatment has shifted over the decades. Modern standards for testing and administering substances have created a new set of advantages, setbacks, and stigmas, all of which are discussed herein. This is the third volume of a sub-series entitled Evaluation of Analytical Methods in Biological Systems. (The first two were Analysis of Biogenic Amines edited by G.B. Baker and R.T. Coutts, and Hazardous Metals in Human Toxicology edited by A. Vercruysse).This latest volume addresses beta-blockers - an area of research for which a Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded in 1988. It provides an up-to-date and comprehensive coverage of the theory and practice of the determination of beta-blockers in biological material. Two main fields of research are dealt with in this book: analytical chemistry and pharmacology, and, as it deals with drugs used in clinical practice, it is also related to a third area: therapy. Thus, it offers relevant information to workers in all three fields.Some 50 beta-blockers are discussed, and nine methods of analysis. The methods are divided into three groups: optical, chromatographic, and saturation methods. In addition to the analytical methods themselves, sample handling problems are also discussed in detail, as is the information content of the analytical results obtained. Special chapters are directed towards those working in pharmacology and pharmacokinetics. Finally, as recent evidence points to the increased importance of distinguishing optical isomers of drugs, a chapter on the determination of optical isomers of beta-blockers in biological material is also included. An extensive subject index and two supplements giving retention indices and structures of beta-blockers complete the book.This is the first book to treat beta-blockers from the point of view of their determination and to discuss in detail the use of analytical methods for beta-blockers. It will thus appeal to a wide-ranging readership. Diarmuid Jeffreys traces the story of aspirin from the drug's origins in ancient Egypt, through its industrial development at the end of the nineteenth century and its key role in the great flu pandemic of 1918, to its subsequent exploitation by the pharmaceutical conglomerates and the marvelous powers still being discovered today.