Houseplant hacks: can willow water act as a rooting hormone?

This is one of those rare homemade concoctions that works, though it might not outperform a good commercial product

The problem
Propagation is where good intentions go to die. You take a cutting, pop it in water and wait. Sometimes you are rewarded with roots, sometimes not. So the internet offers an organic aid that sounds almost too folkloric to be true: brew your own rooting hormone from a willow tree.

The hack
Willow contains indolebutyric acid, auxin (a plant hormone that is the main active ingredient in commercial rooting powders), along with salicylic acid, better known as the basis of aspirin.