History of penicillin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

History of penicillin - Essay Example In 1896, a French medical student, Ernest Duchesne was the first person to notice Penicillin. Later in 1928, bacteriologist Alexander Fleming re-discovered the drug while working at St. Marys Hospital in London. Fleming discovered an interesting phenomenon with a plate culture of Staphylococcus. He was able to notice that the culture had produced a blue-green mold, which consequently dissolved colonies of bacteria surrounding the mold (Bellis, 4). After a couple of months, further research in to the phenomenon revealed that the mold produced an unknown substance, which dissolved the bacteria. The research also revealed that this mold was not harmful to animals but it was able to kill disease-causing organisms especially bacteria (Hare, 1). In 1939, Dr. Howard Florey, and three partners at Oxford University were able to show that penicillin was actually capable of killing bacteria that cause diseases. They discovered this by conducting intensive research in the capability and strength of the drug. However, there was a challenge, which hindered scientists from Britain to conduct intensive examinations of the drug with humans. This was due to the intensified war with Germany, which rendered the scientists unable to produce adequate quantities of penicillin for human trials. As a result, these British scientists turned to the United States for help. After several intensive experiments in the Peoria Lab, these scientists worked on various methods to increase the growth rate of fungal cultures (Bellis, 6). On 24 August 1940, there was the first publishing of Oxford papers, which showed the capability of penicillin in treating experimentally infected animals. Later, on 2 September same year, Fleming demonstrated that penicillin had the capability of producing total inhibition of staphylococci in human blood (Hare, 21). In 1943, scientists carried out the needed clinical trials, which demonstrated that penicillin was the most effectual antibacterial agent to