Penicillin Research Paper

Penicillin, an antibiotic agent, helps cure many people of infectious diseases. It was one of the first antibiotics discovered and continues to save many lives. Penicillin played a vital role in medicine throughout history and still does today. Many important events led to the discovery, early development, and later development of penicillin, along with the help of scientists Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey, and Andrew J. Moyer.

The discovery of penicillin, in 1928, was purely by accident. It was discovered by bacteriologist Alexander Fleming when he came back from vacation to his lab in London. He had left his lab in a mess and found that mold had grown on some plates he had left out in the open. Fleming noticed one plate in particular that had a ring around the mold. “After some experimentation, he found that the ring was bacteria-free, and that the mold was a rare spore called Penicillium notatum…” (Lane). Fleming grew the mold and discovered that it created a substance that had the property of killing many disease-causing bacteria. He named this substance penicillin and published his findings, noting that it may have value if produced in quantity

Howard Florey, a scientist at the Oxford University. Florey, along with some of his colleagues, began research on penicillin and its properties in 1939. They brought a small dose of penicillin to the Peoria Lab in the U.S. to begin their work. “Pumping air into deep vats containing corn steep liquor and the addition of other key ingredients was shown to produce faster growth and larger amounts of penicillin than the previous surface-growth method” (Bellis). Florey found an easier way to process penicillin rapidly and in larger amounts, saving time and money. After his discovery, the drug was mass-produced and used on the war front, saving many lives (Connors). Without Florey’s achievement, penicillin would never have become the antibiotic used