Before Aspirin:
Plants

Weeping willow tree.

Plants have been popular sources of pain remedies in just about every culture on earth. Comfrey leaves, coriander, sage, sarsaparilla root and willow bark were common old world remedies, while sweet birch bark, cinchona bark, and hot peppers were common plant remedies used by people in the new world. Banana and aloe plants also fought pain, as compounds found in their leaves and stems were used to soothe burns and blisters. (Aloe is still used in modern burn salves.) These and other plants were boiled and beaten and ground into teas, pastes, poultices, and ointments to ease the pain that afflicted everyone at one time or another.

Opium poppy.

White poppies provided one of the strongest painkillers in nature's pharmacy. The juice of its unripe seeds can be dried to produce opium. Opium takes away pain, but its addictiveness makes it dangerous to use. The modern drug morphine is extracted from opium.