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Article by: Guan Wan Jing
Nowadays, Penicillin has become one of the most prominent and highly demanded antibiotics, to cure mere diseases such as normal flu, or to deadly infections such as pneumonia, penicillin is the solution. However, have you ever wondered how that one efficacious medicine that cures almost all bacterial infections was discovered?
It was an accidental discovery! In 1928, in Dr. Alexander Fleming’s lab, St. Mary’s Hospital, London, he grew some Staphylococcus bacteria in a Petri dish and went for a holiday. When he came back, a mould grew in the Petri dish as well, but the mould seemed to prevent the bacteria from growing around it. Fleming deduced that the restriction of the growth of bacteria was caused by a self-defence chemical secreted by the mould - Penicillin.
Soon, Fleming went to submit his work and discovery to the Medical Research Club, only to face little interest and doubts. Several other scientists attempted to purify and mass-produce Penicillin, however, none was successful. As a result, they became pessimistic and lost the hopes that they had. Regardlessly, the journey did not end here.
Nearly 10 years later, two scientists, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, led a team and began their research after reading Fleming’s findings. The research was named as ‘Penicillin Project’. Due to dissension in the labs, they struggled to work efficiently. After 3 years of effort, the scientists came across a way to successfully produce pure Penicillin, but in spite of that, it was an inefficient process. When their team produced enough pure Penicillin, they began animal testing. However, they still lacked the method to mass produce the chemical - gallons of mould only produced a pinch of Penicillin. From there, they attempted to store mould broth in fermentation vessels, with a few milligrams of Penicillin produced a week. After finding out that the chemical could be
recycled, they even kept the patient’s urine to filter out the Penicillin.
Only in June 1941, when Florey brought the idea to Peoria, Illinois, USA from the UK due to war, he discovered that adding corn-steep liquor helps to increase the yield of Penicillin exponentially when added to the mould broth. The high concentration of amino acid, sugar and nitrogen provided an excellent environment for mould fermentation. From there, it leads to the modern way of mass production.
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