What is aspirin made of?
Aspirin takes 7 things directly, among them phenol, caustic soda, carbon dioxide, sulfuric acid, acetic anhydride and water. Trace them back and you pass 15 made things on the way to 11 raw materials.
How aspirin is made See it on the map
What goes straight in
From the ground: 11 raw materials
- Water goes straight in
- Air through sulfuric acid
- Rock salt through caustic soda
- Natural gas through carbon dioxide
- Corn through corn starch
- Limestone through carbon dioxide
- Sulfur through sulfuric acid
- Crude oil through phenol, propylene
- Coal through phenol, benzene, toluene
- Sugarcane through carbon dioxide, baker's yeast, molasses
- Sugar beet through carbon dioxide, baker's yeast, molasses
Made along the way: 9 things
Chemicals and fuels 7
Food 2
What it is packed in
On the line, but left out of everything above, because it holds the finished thing rather than goes into it.