Talk:Methyl salicylate

Suggestions
The image chemical structure at the top right of page is the ionic form of salicylic acid, not the structure of the ester, methyl salicylate.KCMF (talk) 15:10, 16 February 2023 (UTC)

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I'd like to suggest writing a little bit about how Ecstasy tablets (and other drugs) are notoriously cut with Methyl salicylate. If no one is willing, I'm up for the contribution.

-- Anonymous

I come to this page just to read about this! Bit I found not. white that,please. Ps. Im write annonymous couse I'd have only account on pt.wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.26.143.173 (talk) 19:46, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

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"Methyl salicylate's odor is nearly indistinguishable from "sour-apple"
 * Is this correct? I have smelled a bottle of the pure chemical, and it smells nothing like sour apples. Smells exactly like Wint-O-Green Life Savers&reg; --Joeylawn 05:25, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Indistinguishable from sour apple! ha, I have never heard anything so silly in my life. I have removed this and other very dubious claims. WaynaQhapaq 09:33, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Looking around the wikipedia site, I researched "salicylic acid", finding the following page...Salicylic Acid. Later on, while researching "Oil of Wintergreen", I came upon methyl salicylate. While the 2 chemical structures are similar, they are not completely the same, even though the methyl salicylate page lists "Salicylic Acid" as one of its alternate names. Is this a mistake, or is methyl salicylate really known as salicylic acid? If it is also known as salicylic acid, and the other page which discusses salicylic acid discusses a totally different organic compound, then perhaps a note should be added to warn readers of the difference between the two. I would add it myself, but I don't have the necessary knowledge to confirm its validity. --RubyDragon 22:54, 6 September 2006 (UTC)


 * No, this article (Methyl salicylate) says salicylic acid methyl ester is an alternate name. That's all one phrase. Salicylic acid is a different chemical, as you say. —Keenan Pepper 02:57, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Different Questions
Just wanted to know whether methyl salicylate can be a stimulant[like drugs]?

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Victoria Eleanor (talk • contribs) 15:01, 12 January 2007 (UTC).


 * NO, elsewhere wintergreen flavorised chewing gum would make you high. Higher doses only get you down - under the ground. It's only used to flavorise synthetic drugs. --128.246.31.6 (talk) 13:15, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

I found a picture of a medical suggestion, that says that a 5 to 40% ointment of methyl salicylate can cause orgasms when being applied to the scrotum. Is this real? http://content.mindcrap.com/gallery/picdump/88/37.jpg This picture appears on different places all over the internet since a few years. 84.190.82.123 (talk) 20:43, 2 June 2011 (UTC)


 * This isn't really a question about the article. Try the Reference Desk, Reference Desk/Science. —Keenan Pepper 21:37, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

Remark
Should the chemical formula be C6H4(OH)COOCH3 in stead of C6H4(HO)COOCH3? Simon de Danser 07:57, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

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Removed Vandalism - Libelous/Unsubstantiated Claims, Adversting
Found this while reading the article:

called oil of wintergreen, and is in listerene a mouthwash produced by the Johnson Jonhson company. and is poisonious to human beings So i recommend rinsing with hydrogen peroxide (which can be bought at any store) to rinse your mouth it works better and is eco friendly and also safe to swallow

thank you for listening ^_^

As it's clearly a POV without any cited sources, I've removed it for the following reasons:

Recommending alternatives is considered advertising. Advising readers to drink and swallow hydrogen peroxide is irresponsible and clear vandalism, so I've removed that as well. Any claims that Methyl salicylate is toxic to humans in small amounts used in mouthwash needs cited sources. B.Soto (talk) 23:22, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Hi,

I'm pretty sure the structure is wrong, I cannot see a methyl anywhere.

-yo Anyone heard that if its eaten with sugar crystals, light shines out of the eaters mouth?


 * The structure is correct. The line extending from the oxygen of the carboxylic acid indicates a methyl group in this type of chemical structure depiction.  --Ed (Edgar181) 18:17, 14 December 2006 (UTC)


 * This confused me too - the line looks like a minus! Would it not be better to replace it with a CH3? Smartse (talk) 16:13, 12 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Same reason we do not mark the benzene carbons: Skeletal formula. --Rifleman 82 (talk) 17:58, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

The structure is definately wrong as the group that is drawn is not a benzene group but a cyclohexa-1,2,5-triene has been drawn.

IUPAC NAME
I'm not an expert but I'm pretty certain that the IUPAC name for methyl salicylate is methyl-2-hydroxybenzoate, as the IUPAC name for salicylic acid is 2-hydroxybenzoic acid, and IUPAC names typically follow the IUPAC conventions.24.65.95.239 (talk) 04:04, 16 March 2009 (UTC)24.65.95.239 (talk) 04:04, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Followup: I searched methyl salicylate IUPAC name and methyl 2-hydroxybenzoate is indeed the first result that comes up, and the correct one for this ester, and not as the box previously said methyl salicylate.24.65.95.239 (talk) 04:07, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Followup 2: Also the name methyl 2-hydroxybenzoate was in this article elsewhere already.24.65.95.239 (talk) 04:08, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

The monograph in EP and JP...???
It is indexed in EP https://www.edqm.eu/store/images/majbdd/200709201618250.6_1%20IndexE.pdf --222.64.214.157 (talk) 07:30, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

So is in JP http://moldb.nihs.go.jp/jp/DetailList_en.aspx?submit=Detail(en)&keyword=Methyl+Salicylate --222.64.214.157 (talk) 07:38, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

Could someone also please verify the info about the chemical in USP??? http://www.vifapharm.de/uspinh.pdf--222.64.214.157 (talk) 07:53, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

By looking at the index of BP 2009, it looks like the phamacopoeia does contain the monographes of the chemical formulations http://www.pharmacopoeia.co.uk/2009/about.htm --222.64.18.236 (talk) 08:20, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

Analgesic?
An over the counter pain-relieving patch website claims that methyl salicylate is an analgesic. But the article does not state that. Is or is not methyl salicylate an analgesic? If so, please add that fact to the article. This is an important issue, since this article states that this chemical is toxic in excessive doses. As with many other toxic chemicals, the possible harmfulness of doses less than the toxic amount is unknown and not well researched. David spector (talk) 23:17, 22 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I remember my Grandmother giving us a few drops of Oil of Wintergreen in a spoonful of sugar with the expectation that it was a pain reliever. The practice had a European origin and may have been the inspiration for the song in the movie, Mary Poppins: "A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down". I don't recall any ill effects from the ministration. Virgil H. Soule (talk) 08:17, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

Other Chinese translations of the chemical (term)....
--58.38.40.11 (talk) 08:23, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
 * http://www.google.com.sg/search?hl=zh-CN&newwindow=1&q=Methyl+salicylate+%E5%86%AC%E9%9D%92%E6%B2%B9+gov.cn&btnG=Google+%E6%90%9C%E7%B4%A2&meta=&aq=f&oq=

Not "toxic"
This substance is an old chinese medicine and not toxic, at least not more than acetylsalicylic acid (like aspirin which you can get in every store these days). Again a nice political Wiki site that wants to sell aspirine instead of wintergreen oil. But it's both the same, inform yourself (ldLO, and several studies exist on the internet). Still, aspirin may be cheaper and an overdose less probable due to standardized doses, so no more words to loose. 178.197.232.13 (talk) 17:18, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

Concentration
"A single teaspoon (5ml) of methyl salicylate contains 7g of salicylate". Unlikely. 5ml of water weighs 5 grams. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.169.159.226 (talk) 10:28, 21 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Methyl salicylate is more dense than water, so you would expect 5 mL to weigh more than 5 g. Based on the density reported in the chembox (1.174), 5 mL would weigh ~ 6 g.  -- Ed (Edgar181) 10:56, 21 September 2013 (UTC)

safety and toxicty
The Oxford University MSDS data base is no longer maintained, it is referenced in the article. " The lowest published lethal dose is 101 mg/kg body weight in adult humans,[19] " The worlds foremost producer of Methyl Salicylate lists an LD 50 of 887 mg/kg rat. I think reference 19 and the preceding sentence of text should be removed as it can no longer be substantiated, and current data does not support such a low toxicity levelChemfluoro (talk) 12:58, 20 November 2015 (UTC)Chemfluor

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Sentence Structure
I'm looking at sentence #2: "It is also synthetically produced, used as a fragrance, in foods and beverages, and in liniments." This sentence is poorly constructed. It lists 3 different kinds of facts about methyl salicylate: how it is produced, how it is used, and where it is used, serially, separated by commas, as if they are examples of the same kind of fact. Each kind of fact would be better placed in its own sentence. Grammatically, the comma after "used as a fragrance" is unneeded. I would suggest putting each sort of fact in its own sentence, as follows: "It is also synthetically produced. Methyl salicylate has many uses. In food and beverages it is used as a flavoring. In liniments it is used as topical pain reliever. In many kinds of products, it is used as a fragrance." As it is now, the sentence can be construed to mean that it is used as a fragrance both in foods and beverage, and in liniments. However its primary use in liniments is as a topical pain reliever. Bad bad sentence. Bad sentence. But knowing how stubborn the people are who have become powerful on wikipedia, if I were to correct the sentence it would soon be returned to its original form and I would be criticized for messing with a perfectly good sentence. It is not a perfectly good sentence. It is a travesty.Nomenclator (talk) 14:26, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

Absurd Notion
"This compound is probably produced as an anti-herbivore defense." This is an absurd notion. It implies that plants have volition, and that you are trying to understand their reasoning. Plants neither have volition, nor do they reason. You could say that it apparently functions, or it may be that it can be shown that it clearly functions, as a defense against being eaten by herbivores, but to say that plants produce it for this reason – no-one has ever demonstrated that plants can reason, or that evolutionary changes are the result of reasoning. You can compare evolutionary changes to reasoning, and learning, but to flatly state that either a plant, or evolution, does something for a reason – we don't know that that happens, and it sounds ridiculous.Nomenclator (talk) 14:37, 9 March 2018 (UTC)


 * This sentence does not imply plants have volition. Stating that x is produced as y does not assign agency. It only indicates a possible function for x. Whether consciousness is involved may be implied by the nature of subject, not the “as”: compare “I produce pesticides as an anti-herbivore defense for my tomatoes” (implies conscious intention) and “the human body produces antibodies as a defense against disease” (does not). It seems pretty clear from context that the function would have been selected for as part of ordinary evolutionary processes, but if you think it can be stated better, I doubt anyone will mind the edit. --2601:182:C680:CCC:7817:2B0A:C8DE:2ADB (talk) 20:30, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Beneficial to Whom?
At least the sentence I quote doesn't suffer from implying that plants have reasoning, as the sentence before it does, however it has a different problem. "If the plant is infected with herbivorous insects, the release of methyl salicylate may function as an aid in the recruitment of beneficial insects to kill the herbivorous insects." Beneficial to whom? It is quite sufficient to say that methyl salicylate may function as an aid in the recruitment of (carnivorous) insects to kill the herbivorous insects. You don't need to state that the recruited insects are beneficial to someone or something. It is obvious to whom they are beneficial – and to whom they are harmful. Adding the word "beneficial" is a redundancy. Carnivorous insects are not beneficial to the herbivorous insects they have been recruited to kill. They may be beneficial to plants that release methyl salicylate in response to being eaten by herbivorous insects. Also, the word for being eaten by lots of insects should be infested, not infected. Whether the carnivorous insects recruited by a certain plant are beneficial or harmful to humans may depend upon whether the plant is desired or undesired. If the plant is being cultivated by humans than the carnivorous insects are beneficial insects - to humans. But if the plant is a weed invading a garden, then the same insects are suddenly "harmful" insects. And the same plant that is desired in one place, may be undesired in another place. Nomenclator (talk) 14:55, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

volatility of Methyl salicylate
Please add info about the volatility of Methyl salicylate, particularly in the natural organic context of plants such as Betula lenta. Even though it is called an "oil", the wintergreen smell seems to fade quickly from exposed bark scrapings. And is the oil much more concentrated in the less mature twigs, less present in mature bark of larger trunks?-73.61.15.117 (talk) 16:29, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Hemp oil
Maybe this bit is important, maybe not. I removed it because it is supported by a primary cite. "Methyl salicylate is a natural product content in hemp seed oil. "--Smokefoot (talk) 01:51, 7 April 2018 (UTC)