We're doing a TLC analysis of analgesic drugs. One of my prelab questions is:

Question

Name some advantages of using acetaminphen (Tylenol) instead of aspirin as an analgesic.

They were probably dissolved in methylene chloride amd ethanol and I'm assuming that's because one of these is water soluble and the other is organic soluble.

Some of the stuff didn't dissolve in the bottom of some of the bottles. My guess would be that Tylenol contains a buffer and aspirin doesn't. I'll look tomorrow to verify that.

Perhaps one analgesic is soluble in water and the other soluble in an organic compound. Or maybe one of them dissolves better than the other.

Any ideas about this?

Thanks from Sheryl

Aspirin is often sold as the sodium salt which makes it soluble in water. One advantage, biological and I assume that is what you are asking about, is that aspirin is a blood thinner. So I don't want to take a bunch of aspirin after major surgery. Or for a few days before, either, for that matter.
Some of the material that didn't dissolve could be a binder, too; i.e., something to hold the tablet together.