I. Introduction
Penicillin was discovered in the year 1928 by Alexander Fleming. Even though Alexander Fleming was the discoverer of Penicillin, he never tried to test the drug as a medicine, instead, Howard Walter Florey, Ernst Chain, and Norman Heatley did. Thus the discovery of penicillin as a medicine was attributed to them. What is penicillin? Penicillin is a group of antibodies used to counter serious diseases. Penicillin is a rather old drug that is still used in many other countries today. Penicillin’s are mixtures that are naturally and organically produced. The formula for penicillin is C16H18N2O5S. Today many bacteria had developed resistance to the drug yet it is still effective. There are 4 classes of penicillins, based upon their ability to kill various types of bacteria. They include: Natural Penicillins, Penicillinase-Resistant Penicillins Aminopenicillins, and Extended Spectrum Penicillins. In all there are more than 50 different types of penicillin.
II. Discovery
The discovery of penicillin was originally noticed by a French medical student, Ernest Duchesne, in 1896. Ernest Duchesne documented his discovery in a paper in 1897, yet it was not accepted by the Institut Pasteur for the reason of his youth. There were a few other people who also discovered penicillin a few years previous to Fleming yet none of them had shared or developed the drug. Penicillin was “re-discovered” by Alexander Fleming on Friday, September 28th, 1928. He observed that a plate culture of Staphylococcus had been contaminated by a blue-green mold and that colonies of bacteria adjacent to the mold were being dissolved. Even though the re-discovery of penicillin wasn’t until the year 1928, it was not until the year 1945 that it was used for a medicine. This is because there was not sufficient enough stock to be mass produced and the drug had not been totally refined and tested. His discovery was accidental. In his laboratory Fleming noticed a Petri-dish containing Staphylococcus plate culture he had mistakenly left open. The substance was contaminated by blue-green mould, and formed visible growth. The substance was growing, along with eating the bacteria in the Petri-dish. He grew the substance again and discovered that it was a Penicillium mould. In its early stages, penicillin was most effective against Gram-positive bacteria. Fleming was convinced that penicillin would not last long enough to fight off pathogenic bacteria in the human body, thus in 1931, he put a hold on his work. Eventually he had people experiment with penicillin and in the year 1945, Florey and Chain created the drug, penicillin, and they shared their Nobel prize with Fleming.
III. Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming was born on August 6th, 1881. He was a Scottish biologist and a pharmacologist. The things he is most known for are his discoveries of the enzyme lysosome and penicillin. His discovery of penicillin got him the Nobel Prize in 1945, in which he shared with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain. After World War I, Fleming actively searched for anti-bacterial agents. His reason for doing this is because he witnessed so many soldiers die from infected wounds. In the day, people used antiseptics, which did more harm than good for they killed the patients’ immunological defenses more than they killed the invading bacteria. Fleming did an experiment in which described why these antiseptics were killing more soldiers than infection itself during World War I. Antiseptics are drugs that work well on the surface, but they did not have the capability to clean deep wounds, which sheltered bacteria and instead of removing the bad bacteria, the antiseptics removed the beneficial agents. Fleming’s discovery of Penicillin was a complete accident even though his intent was to create a drug with qualities in which penicillin has. - "When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn't plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world's first antibiotic, or bacteria killer," Fleming would later say, "But I suppose that was exactly what I did" Those are words directly stated by Fleming, proving his accidental discovery.
IV. Impact Penicillin discovery had on the world
The discovery of penicillin changed the course of history. The ingredient in the mold, in which Fleming named penicillin, was really an infection-fighting agent with huge potential. When it was finally recognized, this life-saving drug altered history forever. The discovery completely changed the treatment of bacterial infections. By the 1950’s, Fleming's discovery had created a drug that had the potential to drive out diseases like syphilis, gangrene and tuberculosis. Penicillin was the first antibiotic to be invented and is used to combat powerful bacteria and fatal infections.
V. Journal Article
Fleming Discovers Penicillin
The Article “Fleming Discovers Penicillin” states that Fleming discovered lysozyme, an enzyme in many body fluids, such as tears. This enzyme had a natural antibacterial effect, but not against it didn’t have the strongest effect against infectious agents; thus he continued his search. Fleming was always working on multiple things in his lab, sometimes causing accidental mixing of experiments. His messiness proved to be very fortunate. In 1928, he was cleaning up a pile of Petri dishes where he had been growing bacteria, but he had been piled in the sink. He opened each one and examined it before tossing it into the cleaning solution. One of them looked odd to him so he looked into it and he discovered penicillin. It was that simple. The article also says that Fleming actually was okay with receiving aid from Howard Walter Florey and Ernst Chain. Because of Fleming’s selflessness, the antibiotic was created and millions of lives were saved.
Videos about Penicillin:
The discovery of Penicillin- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qeZLLhx5kU
A basic overview of Fleming’s life- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVOz1cD6_MI
The beginning of the movie “The story of Penicillin” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdYiq3Y4OHg
Sources:
• Fleming discovers Penicillin (1998). Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dm28pe.html
• Penicillin (2010). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillin
• Alexander Fleming (2010). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Fleming
• Penicillin Antibiotics information- Uses and side effects (2010). Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Penicillin-Antibiotics-Classification---Uses-and-Side-Effects&id=401820
• Cerner Multum, Inc. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.drugs.com/penicillin.html
• The history of Penicillin (2010). Retrieved from http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/Penicillin.htm
• Alexander Fleming and the Discovery of Penicillin (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.essortment.com/all/alexanderflemin_rmkm.htm
• Jacoby D., & Youngson R. (2005) The Encyclopedia of Family Health. New York: Marshall Cavendish.
• Wootton, D. (2006). Bad Medicine, Doctors Doing Harm Since Hippocrates. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Horvitz, L. A. (2002). Eureka! Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed the World. New York: Wiley.
• Amyes, S. G. (2001). Magic Bullets, Lost Horizons. The rise and Falls of Antibiotics. London: Taylor and Francis.
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