An Accidental Discovery: Sir Alexander Fleming and Penicillin

The development of penicillin provided a major stepping stone for the practice of medicine, and has saved the lives of countless individuals since its synthesis.

The discovery of penicillin was one of the most important discoveries in the 1900s and marks a turning point in human history. Penicillin was one of the world’s first antibiotics which eventually evolved into modern antibiotics that are used today; it has often been described as a miracle drug. The discovery of penicillin meant that doctors finally could completely cure their patients of deadly diseases. After World War I, many soldiers died from infected wounds because the antiseptics used, killed the patients’ immunological defences more than they killed the invading bacteria. Penicillin kills bacteria by destroying the cell wall of the microorganism causing the cell to burst; it was very effective in clearing bacteria without harming the

In 1929 Fleming published his findings to a British Journal of Experimental Pathology, referencing that penicillin had potential of therapeutic benefits. Dr. Fleming was never able to purify his samples of penicillin, but he became the first person to publish the news of its germ-killing power. Howard Florey, Ernst Chain and Norman Heatley expanded on Fleming 's work in 1938, at Oxford University.

by Dr. Alexander Fleming. As test continued, Fleming began to realize that he was on the verge of a great discovery. However, he still did not know the identity of the fungus, and had little knowledge of fungi. His crude extracts could be diluted 1,000 times and still be effective in killing bacteria. After years of working on penicillin and going nowhere, many of his co-workers grew tired of hearing about it. The first real test for penicillin came when a 48-year-old police officer nicked himself shaving. After a time, Alexander's face became infected and he developed a temperature. When he was rushed to the hospital, the doctors believed that he had only hours

The disclosure by Alexander Fleming of penicillin opened up a totally new time of chemotherapy. Antibiotics are the chemotherapeutic specialists that kill or inhabit the development of microorganisms. These substance operators are utilized to treat malady by wrecking pathogenic microorganisms or restraining their development at focus sufficiently low to enough to avoid undesirable harm to the host (Dafale et al., 2016).

What Fleming was particularly interested in was the concept that even though people do obtain bacterial infections at times, majority of the time the human body prevents bacterial infections from affecting the body. During this researching period, Fleming graduated St. Mary’s Medical School once again with a Bachelor of Bacteriology at the same time receiving the gold medal for the top student (Maurois, 1956). In 1914 Fleming concluded his research under Almroth Wright’s guidance and unknowingly continued his journey on to becoming the man with the answer to the biggest human health issue at the time (Maurois, 1956)

In September of 1928, a rushed bacteriologist Dr. Alexander Fleming let his lab at St. Mary’s Hospital, as usual, a mess on his way to a month vacation. Little did he know he had just spawned one of the most crucial inventions of all time. Upon his return to his laboratory he found mold had grown in the petri dishes he had left out. One of whom contained the rare spore Penicillium notatum that had probably wafted up into his lab through the air currents from the down-stairs mycology lab. Dr. Fleming noticed a ring around the mold, and it was 100% bacteria free! Curiosity urged him onward, as he grew a pure culture of the mold and discover that it killed a great deal of disease-causing bacteria. He would go on to name the substance penicillin.

Jesse Lane says in Not-So-Dumb Luck, When he came back, he noticed that every dish he had left out in the open was covered in mold.” She later says, “The dish that had caught Fleming’s eye contained a staphylococci culture- in other words, it was chock full of bacteria- and while Fleming had been away, the culture had also grown a tuft of yellow-green mold.” And that was the beginning revolutionary history of penicillin. Later in the paragraph the author says, “After some experimentation, he found that the ring was bacteria free, and that the mold was a rare spore called Penicillium notatum,” Where the name penicillin comes from ”which had wafted on air currents into his lab from another floor.” If he hadn’t gone on vacation and left his lab a mess then penicillin wouldn’t be with us today saving lives.Thirdly, penicillin is a widely used medicine that kills bacteria and treats

Fleming’s work was later expanded by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain and their team at Oxford University beginning in 1938, about ten years after Fleming’s first findings. They were able to transform penicillin as a curiosity in the lab and antiseptic to the life-saving antibiotic we know it as today. Howard Florey was deemed at an early age by his older sister who was a medical student at the time to be the next “Pasteur” due to his interest in pursuing medical research. Florey then achieved much as a student at the University of Adelaide, which at that time didn’t specialize in researchers, but in preparing general practitioners. Howard then went on to receive the Rhodes Scholarship to study in England at Oxford University. He used this opportunity as a springboard to going on to study in America and return back to England to Oxford University achieve much greatness. In 1938, he became the director of the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. After a few years of taking on a variety of experiments and gathering a team of trusted professionals, he spearheaded work on the self-proclaimed “Penicillin Project” after coming across and sifting

Before 1928, infections such as pneumonia and gonorrhea were untreatable, and many died of blood poisoning due to lesions that are considered minor in modern times. There were no known antibiotics that could kill the bacteria that caused such infections, so people would die of minor illnesses, such as strep throat. However, Alexander Fleming noticed something odd in one of the petri dishes at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, and this seemingly insignificant observation would revolutionize the field of medicine. He was cultivating strains of the Staphylococcus bacteria, and he found that there were not any bacteria colonies growing near a patch of mold in the dish. After looking more into this finding, Alexander Fleming learned that the mold was actually a strain of Penicillium notatum, and it had the capacity to kill malign bacteria like streptococcus, meningococcus

named Dr. Amalia Koutsouri-Vourekas. During World War One, Alexander Fleming joined the Army Medical Corps and while serving, Fleming had noticed that the substances they were using at the time for antibiotics did more harm to the patients than it helped them. During his time in the military, after discovering how harmful the current antibiotics were, he got to work and made many innovations to them, making them safer and do more good. At the time, these innovations were seen as great things but soon would be overseen with his later discovery.

Antibiotics were introduced to people in 1929, which could restrain the normal growth of the other bacteria called antimicrobial activity, was found by British scientist Alexander Fleming by coincidence. Then scientists used antibiotics, to cure injured soldiers and got great success during the World War. With the efforts of many scientists in the past half of the century, thousand kinds of antibiotics are found, which could be natural, semi-synthetic or synthetic, and many of them are used in medical field successfully.

In 1928, after the careless mistake of forgetting to clean his dishes, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. The scientific community still celebrates his discovery since it was a major breakthrough in science, especially in the antibiotics and fermentation field. Although his discovery changed various scientific fields and it opened the doors for research in areas not studied or considered relevant before, the actual usefulness of penicillin was truly reached until the large scale production of penicillin was achieved. Before its manufacturing penicillin was considered for researching purposes, but after its manufacturing during World War II, it truly became helpful for humanity because it could finally start performing within its antibiotic spectrum.

“In 1938, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain began to study penicillin” (Connors 126). This is important because it means extensive research was being done to figure out a way for penicillin to be applied on humans. “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” (Connors 126). This means there was a need for the development of penicillin, this fact probably motivated the scientists. In the end, without the development of penicillin, it could not have become such a widely used

Before Alexander Fleming founded penicillin,a French medical student Ernest Duchesne first noticed penicillin. In 1897, he first recorded his finding on a piece of paper differentiating molds and microbes. Ernest first came across clues for developing penicillin when he was in the Military Health Service School in Arabia. He saw that the stable boys at the hospital kept their saddles in dark and damp rooms to intentionally let mold grow.When Ernest ask the reason for these peculiar actions, the stable boys told him that the mold would heal the saddle sore on horse.Ernest then take this information and decided to test it on guinea pigs. Ernest Duchesne extracted substances from penicillium glaucum and successfully cured typhoids in guinea pigs,