# Organic chem query - acetylsalicylic acid to salicylic acid

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organic-chem-query-acetylsalicylic-acid-to-salicylic-acid/527857>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 5, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organic-chem-query-acetylsalicylic-acid-to-salicylic-acid/527857 "2010-02-05T22:26:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hirka\_T\_Bawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/db5fbb/32.png) [@Hirka\_T\_Bawa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hirka_T_Bawa)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organic-chem-query-acetylsalicylic-acid-to-salicylic-acid/527857/21 "2010-02-07T18:38:42Z")

</div>

> [@janeslogin](#):
>
> **Excellent suggestion**. I will go looking for a suitable product.
> 
> In the meantime do you know if there OTC products containing any more salicylic acid than USP aspirin that are sold in a water soluble medium? Would it not be difficult to extract salicylic acid from cosmetics? I wonder if Pepto-Bismol were mixed in a weak acid would I get a salicylic acid solution?

Salicylic Acid is a major ingredient in many OTC Acne products, and also in OTC wart remover products. I’m sure you could find a product that would be easier to purify then making Salicylic Acid from Aspirin.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organic-chem-query-acetylsalicylic-acid-to-salicylic-acid/527857/22 "2010-02-07T19:46:50Z")

</div>

Good point about wart remover products. I think some of those are just salycilic acid dissolved in t-butanol. I don’t know how harmful t-butanol is to plants, but it is easy to get rid of.

To get rid of it, I would simply pour it on a flat surface to let most of the t-butanol evaporate. This might take a few days. I don’t know how much crude salicylic acid you will get out of this, but to wash the rest of the t-butanol away, I would just add it to water. Salicylic acid has a solubility of 2g/liter, so it probably wont go into solution unless you use a lot of water. Then you can filter it. A coffee filter should work just fine.

This will still have a small amount of t-butanol in it, but I don’t think it will be too bad. If you wanted it super clean, you could recrystallize it, but that isn’t something a non-chemist will be very successful at.

If I had to guess, one of those bottles might have about 1 g of salicylic acid, but I can’t seem to find the actual amount.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organic-chem-query-acetylsalicylic-acid-to-salicylic-acid/527857/23 "2010-02-08T21:09:18Z")

</div>

Thanks. I am going to try and age some aspirin first, because, as I have noted the hobbyists information sources are riddled with “aspirin” suggestions.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organic-chem-query-acetylsalicylic-acid-to-salicylic-acid/527857.md?page=1)