Essay Example on Penicillin was one of the first Antibiotics

Penicillin was one of the first antibiotics to be created It was discovered by bacteriologist Dr Alexander Fleming In September 1928 Dr Fleming noticed a spot on his petri dish that contained staphylococcus which is a bacterium that causes boils and a sore throats When he looked closely he saw that it was mold that was called Penicillium Dr Fleming found that not only was the bacteria in the petri dish being destroyed but also that the mold Penicillium was capable of killing a large number of harmful bacteria Fleming then partnered with is assistants in order to isolate and purify the penicillium into a crude form of penicillin He published his finding in June 1929 stating that penicillin was beneficial to humans It was not until ten years later in 1939 that Florey and Chain from the Oxford University began to experiment more with penicillin with the notion to purify it so that it could be used to aid in the war They had to stabilize the penicillin first and test it to make sure that it would be safe for humans to consume A test was first done with mice Florey and Chain infected 50 mice with a terminal illness half of the mice were given penicillin 

The results were that the half that were given the penicillin survived Once they noted that the test was a success they then began to experiment with human test subjects The first human to receive penicillin was Albert Alexander in 1941 He was severely ill when Florey and Chain came to him with the experimental penicillin When they dispensed the drug to Alexander he began to show tremendous improvements However they ran out of the antibiotic so he eventually died Now that they knew that the drug was effective in humans Florey and Chain needed to find a way to manufacture enough product to dispense to the masses military Florey and his coworker Norman Heatley got funding from the Rockefeller Foundation to travel to the United states so that they could collaborate with other scientists to increase the production of the penicillium penicillin During their time in the U S they found a stain of the fungus Penicillium chrysogenum that grew faster than the original penicillin that they first discovered After that they began to use corn steeped liquor as a culture medium and glyceryl monoricinoleate in order to stop the foam from overflowing By 1942 400 million tanks of pure penicillin was being distributed During World War 1 a lot of people were being killed from various diseases and infections from injuries and ill people