A team of scientists, from the University of Bath's Department of Chemistry and Institute for Sustainability have found a way to create two of the world's most common painkillers, paracetamol and ibuprofen, out of a compound found in pine trees, one which is also a waste product from the paper industry.
  • ignirtoq@feddit.onlineEnglish
    111·
    18 hours ago

    I’m significantly allergic to pine. I wonder if this means I would no longer be able to take these medications if industry switched to this method.

    • EchoCranium@lemmy.zipEnglish
      82·
      14 hours ago

      It’s very unlikely that you would experience any problems. Drug synthesis such as this involves multiple reaction steps, precipitations, washes, and filtrations to produce the final purified active compound. If they’re creating acetaminophen, that final product is going to be pretty much pure acetaminophen with only trace amounts of impurities. Not enough to cause issues.

    • rhythmisaprancer@piefed.socialEnglish
      8·
      17 hours ago

      This has been one of the advantages of petroleum: the ability to make the same or similar product without concerns like this. Latex, for example.

      It looks like this specific process has a lot more going on compared to latex but your question is valid and would need to be addressed.