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The history of penicillin follows observations and discoveries of evidence of antibiotic activity of the mould Penicillium that led to the development of penicillins that became the first widely used antibiotics. Following the production of a relatively pure compound in 1942, penicillin was the first naturally-derived antibiotic.
1942 – benzylpenicillin, the first penicillin; 1942 – gramicidin S, the first peptide antibiotic; 1942 – sulfadimidine; 1943 – sulfamerazine; 1944 – streptomycin, the first aminoglycoside [2] 1947 – sulfadiazine; 1948 – chlortetracycline, the first tetracycline; 1949 – chloramphenicol, the first amphenicol [2] 1949 – neomycin
Pliny the Elder, who lived from 23–79 CE, first gave a name to what we now call pills, calling them pilula. [2] Pliny also wrote Naturalis Historia a collection of 38 books and the first pharmacopoea. Pedanius Dioscorides wrote De Materia Medica (c. 40 – 90 CE); this book dominated the area of drug knowledge for some 1500 years until the ...
He left petri dishes out while on vacation, and mold contamination revealed the world’s first antibiotic. This mistake revolutionized medicine, saving millions of lives. Image credits: Rose Smith
Ancient societies used moulds to treat infections and in the following centuries many people observed the inhibition of bacterial growth by moulds. While working at St Mary's Hospital in London in 1928, Scottish physician Alexander Fleming was the first to experimentally demonstrate that a Penicillium mould secretes an antibacterial substance ...
Modern antibiotics are tested using a method similar to Fleming's discovery. Fleming also discovered very early that bacteria developed antibiotic resistance whenever too little penicillin was used or when it was used for too short a period. Almroth Wright had predicted antibiotic resistance even before it was noticed during experiments.
After World War II, Australia was the first country to make the drug available for civilian use. In the U.S., penicillin was made available to the general public on March 15, 1945. [112] Fleming, Florey, and Chain shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of penicillin.
The antibiotic, rifaximin, has enabled the global emergence of vancomycin-resistant enterococcus faecium, or VRE, a superbug that frequently causes serious infections in hospitalised patients ...