The zone immediately around the mold-later identified as a rare strain of Penicillium notatum-was clear, as if the mold had secreted something that inhibited bacterial growth.įleming found that his 'mold juice' was capable of killing a wide range of harmful bacteria, such as streptococcus, meningococcus and the diphtheria bacillus. It was dotted with colonies, save for one area where a blob of mold was growing. He noticed something unusual on one dish. Returning from holiday on September 3, 1928, Fleming began to sort through petri dishes containing colonies of Staphylococcus, bacteria that cause boils, sore throats and abscesses. But it was not until 1928 that penicillin, the first true antibiotic, was discovered by Alexander Fleming, Professor of Bacteriology at St. This phenomenon has long been known it may explain why the ancient Egyptians had the practice of applying a poultice of moldy bread to infected wounds. Hospitals were full of people with blood poisoning contracted from a cut or a scratch, and doctors could do little for them but wait and hope.Īntibiotics are compounds produced by bacteria and fungi which are capable of killing, or inhibiting, competing microbial species. Before its introduction there was no effective treatment for infections such as pneumonia, gonorrhea or rheumatic fever.

Penicillin heralded the dawn of the antibiotic age. Landmark Designation and AcknowledgmentsĪlexander Fleming’s Discovery of Penicillin.Penicillin, WWII and Commercial Production.Pharmaceutical Companies Support Production Penicillin Production in the United States during WWII.Penicillin Research at Oxford University.Alexander Fleming’s Discovery of Penicillin.The discovery of penicillin and the initial recognition of its therapeutic potential occurred in the United Kingdom, but, due to World War II, the United States played the major role in developing large-scale production of the drug, thus making a life-saving substance in limited supply into a widely available medicine. The introduction of penicillin in the 1940s, which began the era of antibiotics, has been recognized as one of the greatest advances in therapeutic medicine. In Spanish: Descubrimiento y desarrollo de la penicilina

Squibb & Sons (now Bristol-Myers Squibb Company). Department of Agriculture National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Ill., and the five American pharmaceutical companies that contributed to penicillin production research during WWII: Abbott Laboratories, Lederle Laboratories (now Pfizer, Inc.), Merck & Co., Inc., Chas. Designated November 19, 1999, at the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum in London, U.K.

Surface go model 1943