Paul Jones

Mrs. Ryan

AP Biology

March 02, 2009

Abstract

Over-the-counter drugs and supplements claim that as long as certain

conditions are met, it is safe to store them in your bathroom's medicine cabinet.

Oftentimes brand-name and generic versions of the same drug have the same

warnings about storage and storage conditions. But do they have the same rate of

degeneration when stress is applied? Is the advertised dosage an accurate

reflection of how much of something is truly in a pill? Is there an accurate method to

analyze and quantify these questions when they're applied to the popular analgesic,

acetylsalicylic acid, better known as aspirin. Is it safe to store aspirin in a “steamy-

bathroom?

I hypothesize there will be no significant difference in “pure-form” brand

name or generic?aspirins, but there will be a small difference in concentration

when they are exposed to steam, the literal “steamy-bathroom.” But the

differences in aspirin concentration due to steam will be equivalent in both brand

name and generic drugs. Considering that ASA degrades at 140° C, and steam is

approximately 100° C, I hypothesize it is not a great risk to have aspirin in “steamy

bathroom conditions”

This method uses sodium hydroxide solution to hydrolyze ASA to produce

salicylic acid. The salicylic acid then reacts with iron (III) to give a complex that

absorbs light at 530nm. This absorption allows measurement using a

spectrophotometer. As the study is comparative, standard (known) solutions of ASA

are not required.

My hypothesis was not on par with my results. Generic aspirin saw reduction

in concentration of approximately 25%, whereas the brand-name suffered almost

not degradation.