Discovery Of Penicillin

The discovery of penicillin was one of the most important advancements in the field of medicine. Penicillin today is used as an antibiotic that treats and prevents bacterial infections. There are many events that lead to the modern penicillin used today, but these events can be categorized into three groups: the discovery of penicillin, the early stages of development, and the later stages of development.

In September 1928, penicillin was first discovered by Alexander Fleming. The discovery was reported to be an accident that occurred while Fleming was on vacation as mold from another laboratory contaminated a dish full of bacteria Fleming was researching, according to “Not-So-Dumb Luck” by Jesse Lane. The mold was called Penicillium Notatum, and “When he peered into the dish, Fleming saw a ring around the mold. After some experimentation, he found that the ring was bacteria-free…” (Lane). The

mold had killed much of the bacteria that Fleming was researching, leaving a bacteria free ring around the mold. Fleming accidentally discovered that penicillin was potent at killing bacteria.
Early developments on penicillin began to occur in 1939 by Howard Florey.

Howard Florey was a British scientist who conducted research along with others on penicillin in the United States (Bellis). Key aspects described by Mary Bellis in “The history of Penicillin” emphasise that Florey’s research on penicillin helped “demonstrate penicillin's ability to kill infectious bacteria.” With further research done on penicillin, it was conceivable to use penicillin in beneficial ways. World War II boosted the intensity of the research on penicillin because, as stated by Brittany Connors in “The Discovery of Penicillin: The True Story”, “Part of the reason for their increased effort in discovering how penicillin could be used on humans was that a drug was needed to reduce bacterial infections in soldiers’ wounds.” Death from infected wounds was a common problem before antibiotics, such as penicillin. During the early development of penicillin as an antibiotic much progress was made. However, Florey and other scientists were having problems producing large quantities of the

mold.
Later development of penicillin followed immediately after the early development. A major problem occured when scientists tried to increase production of the mold. The researchers originally tried to surface-grow penicillin but then received better results using a method described by Mary Bellis in “History of Penicillin”, “Pumping air into deep vats containing corn steep liquor (a non-alcoholic by-product of the wet milling process) and the addition of other key ingredients was shown to produce faster growth and larger amounts of penicillin than the previous surface-growth method.” “By November 26, 1941, Andrew J. Moyer, the lab’s expert on the nutrition of molds, had succeeded, with the assistance of Dr. Heatley, in increasing the yields of penicillin 10 times” (Bellis). Because of the increased production, penicillin development skyrocketed. “In 1943, the required clinical trials were performed and penicillin was shown to be the most effective antibacterial agent to date” (Bellis). Penicillin soon became mass produced to the world and is now the antibiotic known today.
In summary, arguably one of most important medical advancements in human history, penicillin, underwent many developments and experiments before the mold became an antibiotic. The history of penicillin was divided into three stages: the discovery, early development, and later development. Penicillin was beneficial to humans in many ways, saved many lives, and is still used to this day.