Penicillin is an antibiotic that has its roots in a fungus called Penicillium

notatum. As an antibiotic, penicillin kills bacteria and prevents them from

continuing their growth, however, only has the power to fight those pathogens
found in growth and multiplication, and not those who are still dormant.

Penicillin is able to effectively fight the bacteria responsible for causing many
diseases, among which we find the pneumococci, streptococci, gonococci,
meningococci, the clostridium tetani and the spirochete. The last two are
responsible for causing tetanus and syphilis, respectively.

History of discovery penicillins

Alexander Fleming was born on August 6, 1881 in Lochfield, Great Britain, in

the heart of a peasant family settled in the valley of Scotland. It was the third of
four siblings.

Penicillin was the most important discovery originated in a fortuitous

observation. In September 1928, Fleming, for a study on mutations of certain
colonies of staphylococci, found that one of the crops had been accidentally
contaminated by a microorganism from the outside air, a fungus subsequently
identified as Penicillium notatum. His thoroughness led him to observe the
performance of the crop, checking around the initial area of contamination,
staphylococci were made transparent, Fleming phenomenon correctly
interpreted as an effect of antibacterial substance secreted by the fungus. Once
isolated it, Fleming was able to take advantage of the limited resources
available to demonstrate the properties of that substance. So, found that a pure
culture broth of the fungus acquired in a few days, a considerable level of
antibacterial activity. Carried out various experiments designed to establish the
degree of susceptibility to stock a wide range of pathogenic bacteria, noting that
many of them were quickly destroyed, by injecting the culture in rabbits and
mice, showed that it was safe for leukocytes, which was an index that should be
reliable harmless to animal cells.

Eight months after his initial comments, Fleming published the results in a
memory that is now considered a classic in the field, but then did not have much
resonance. Although Fleming understood from the outset the importance of the
phenomenon of antibiosis had discovered (even very diluted, the substance had
a much higher antibacterial power of antiseptics as powerful as carbolic acid),
penicillin, yet it took fifteen years to become in universal use therapeutic agent
which was to become. The reasons for this delay are varied, but one of the
most important factors that determined the instability of penicillin, which made
its purification in an extremely difficult process for chemical techniques
available. The solution of the problem was with the research conducted in
Oxford by the team that led the Australian pathologist H. W. Florey and the
German chemist E. B. Chain, a refugee in England, who in 1939 won a
significant grant for the systematic study of antimicrobial substances secreted
by microorganisms. In 1941 he obtained the first successful human patients.
The war situation determined to be devoted to product development resources
significant enough to that already in 1944, all seriously wounded in the battle of
Normandy could be treated with penicillin.

With some delay, finally achieved fame with Fleming, who was elected to the
Royal Society in 1942, was knighted two years later and, finally, in 1945, Florey
and Chain shared the Nobel Prize. He died in London on March 11, 1955.

Admittedly, the fact that it is possible to use penicillin today is due not only to
Fleming, but was the result of efforts by various researchers, the Australian
doctor Howard Walter Florey and Ernst Boris Chain German biochemist who
started a detailed and systematic investigation of natural antibiotics and those
who promoted the manufacture and medical use of penicillin.

The use of this substance can treat various diseases, well into the twentieth
century, is considered incurable. Penicillin was first used on a massive scale in
World War II, where it became clear therapeutic value. Since then, it has been
used with great effectiveness in treating many infectious agents, especially
coconuts, in this sense has been very useful in combating diseases such as
gonorrhea and syphilis.

It was the precursor of antibiotics that have increased the life expectancy rates
in virtually all the world.