"Take two aspirin and call me in the morning."  That old saying is familiar to just about everyone.  Probably not so familiar is that a pharmaceutical company headed by Adolph von Bayer discovered aspirin, a drug beneficial to an overwhelming majority of users.  Not a bad day’s work.  And those scientists von Bayer employed were a busy lot.  They also gave the world heroin.

But it was Adolph von Bayer himself that, in 1863, first synthesized barbituric acid.  It was a combination of urea (found in your urine) and malonic acid (common in unripe fruit), and formed the base material of barbiturates. Adolph von Bayer made his synthesized discovery on the feast day for Saint Barbara, and so named his discovery in her honor (the suffix urates is uric acid salt).  A rather dubious honor, as no practical application was found for barbiturates, so Adolph put them in a drawer somewhere.

Forty years later, in 1903, barbital was synthesized and introduced as Veronal, a sedative.  And those suffering terminal nervousness found a friend.  So did insomniacs, epileptics, and mental patients fogged by long-term hospitalization, as well as jittery patients awaiting surgery. All told there were some 2,500 derivatives of von Bayer’s original barbiturate discovery – all considered wonder drugs of their day.

Except it turned out barbiturates were highly addictive; the ugly fly in medicinal ointments.  Barbiturates affect gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors, bringing about an overall inhibition of the central nervous system, affecting the part of your brain stem responsible for regulating the rhythms of wake and sleep.  The result of such inhibition is getting knocked-out.  Take two and call me when you wake up.