The Fungal Truth Of
History
Penicillin
Alexander Fleming was the first one to
discover Penicillin. He made the
discovery accidentally in 1928 when he
left a petri dish of bacteria open and
some mold fell into it. He saw that the
bacteria had cleared up because of the
mold. He called his discovery
Penicillium notatum. He was not
convinced it would work on humans so
he moved on to other research.
10 years later…..
Howard Florey continued the research of
penicillin with a group of scientist
because they were looking for an antibacterial substance. They first tested the
penicillin on mice. There were eight mice
injected with streptococci bacteria. Four
of the mice were treated with penicillin
and recovered while the other four
untreated mice died.
In 1940, Alexander Fleming,
Howard Florey, and another
scientists who worked with Florey,
named Ernest Chain, won the
Nobel Prize.
Citations:
Penicillin. Retrieved March 19, 2009, from
Drug Information Online Web site:
http://www.drugs.com/penicillin.html
•Penicillium. Penicillium. In Wikipedia [Web]. Retrieved March 19,
2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillium
•Simon Torok, Maker of the Miracle Mould. Retrieved March 19,
2009, from Howard Florey the story Web site:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/florey/story.htm
•Fogel, Robert (2000). Penicillin the first miracle drug. Retrieved
March 19, 2009, from Fun Facts About Fungi Web site:
http://herbarium.usu.edu/fungi/FunFacts/penicillin.htm
First Patient to use
Penicillin
Florey and his team decided it was time to use penicillin on a
patient in 1941. The patient was scratched by a rose thorn
that caused his whole face, eyes, and scalp to swell. He then
had an eye removed. When they gave him penicillin, he
began to recover within a day. But they did not see him fully
recovered since they did not have enough penicillin for the
patient. They tried to recycle the penicillin through his urine
but failed. He eventually died. Florey and his team decided to
concentrate on children because of smaller quantities.
Kingdom
Fungi
Phylum
Ascomycota
Class
Eurotiomycetes
Order
Eurotiales
Family
Trichocomaceae
Genus
Penicillium
How Penicillin
Works Against Bacteria
Penicillin stops bacteria from
forming new cell walls.
Penicillin Production
Bacteria needs to reproduce
Penicillin was hard to produce due to lack of funding and equipment. First mold was
grown through dairy equipment and hospital bedpans. Florey decided to go to
by dividing to produce two
America and introduce his penicillin making method. Florey was in luck because, the
new cells. From there the DNA
Department of Agriculture was looking for new use for a thick liquid product
through corn milling process.
chromosome is copied and the
Penicillin grew better in shallow containers and needed lot’s of air. It was discovered
two new chromosomes move
that in the United States deep fermentation tanks production increased because
sterilized air was pumped continually. It then produced even more when corn steep
apart and a cell wall forms
liquor was added to the tanks because it contained concentrated nutrients that
between them. Penicillin does
increased 12 to 20 times. Scientists tried to find another strain of penicillin that
would grow better in the deep fermentation tanks. In 1943, a laboratory worker,
not harm the old bacteria wall
Mary Hunt, brought an infected cantaloupe found in an ordinary supermarket. This
but stops new cell walls
discovery, Penicillin species Penicillium chrysogenum, grew well in tanks and more
than doubled the amount of Penicillin produced.
making bacteria unable to
reproduce
and
disease
unable
PENICILLIN WARNING
to
spread.
May cause allergic reaction:
May cause side effects:
•Diarrhea
•Fever/chills
•Weakness/Body Aches
•Skin Rash
•Confusion
•Seizure
•Nausea/Stomach pain
•Headache
•Swollen/black tongue
•Hives
•Difficult Breathing
•Swelling in face or lips
•Or tongue or throat
Joann Arredondo
Professor Waissman