Nowadays, we are so indolent that we take for granted the medicine provided for us to cure our pain or illnesses and must feel privileged. When we date back to the 1800-1900, we will come to know that it wasn’t unusual for people to die with minor diseases, as there were no medicines invented for that certain type of disease. For decades, scientist and doctors worldwide have worked day and night in order to invent respective medicines and drugs that can help humankind to get rid of certain disease. Many drugs and medicines have been discovered or invented till today, but the medicine which has provided tremendous advantages to human kind due to its vast effectiveness is no other than Penicillin. Back in the medieval days, hospitals were full of people with infections and there wasn’t much to do but wait and hope. The Circumstances then were unsanitary and penicillin was unheeded.
Penicillin basically refers to any group of substances that are chemically similar and are obtained from molds of the Genus Penicillin. Penicillin was the first medicine discovered that successfully treated the bacterial infections caused by bacteria belonging to the genus of staphylococci. In the beginning, small amounts of penicillin were obtained from strains of mold P. Notatum.
There are seven main classes of antibiotics. One of the main classes is the penicillin group. Including penicillin, ampicillin, amoxicillin, and many others that end with cillin. This group’s main role is to fight bacteria that cause staphylococci etc.
We are auspicious to be provided with numerous amounts of different antibiotics for our medical conditions. Penicillin has been one of the consummate and powerful Medicines yet conceived, and an example of one such disco...
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...uperior amounts, but no attention was paid.
Later in 1938, 10 years after Fleming’s invention three scientists Howard Florey, Ernst Chain and Norman Heatley had prolonged Alexander Fleming’s work at the university of Oxford. They performed certain experiments for growing, sanitizing and extracting penicillin to substantiate its value as a drug. Norman Heatley, had recommended transferring the ingredient of penicillin back to water to change its acidity. By 1940 they produced adequate amount of penicillin to test on animals, which they tested on mice by injecting them with penicillin and streptococci to see which mice had survived. From the results they had gained, the mice that were injected with penicillin had survived whilst the other failed During the year 1942, a patient was successfully treated for the bacterial infections that he had by using penicillin.
The natural components of antibiotics have been used as local remedies long before humans understood the reasons why these sometimes-radical treatments worked. Penicillin became the first manufactured antibiotic after physician Alexander Fleming published articles regarding this bacteria-disabling mold in 1928. Come 1932, penicillin was commonly used to treat infected war injuries, saving the lives of unnumbered soldiers (Lewis). Since then, penicillin has b...
Penicillin, derived from the mold Penicillium, is the first antibiotic to successfully treat bacterial infections on humans. It was accidentally discovered by scientist, Alexander Fleming. While Fleming was growing Staphylococcus, a serious and often deadly infection, in a dish, he noticed the bacteria had stopped growing after a mold found its way
Years later other scientists were also intrigued by the possibilities of penicillin and produced enough penicillin to prove that it was a useable antibiotic. The scientists from Great Britain were developing all of this during World War II, and unfortunately funding for their drug was unavailable due to the war. They decided to bring their concepts to the United States, and once enough was made, it was eventually used, to treat wounded soldiers during World War I.
Having an ear infection in 2015 is no big deal. You hop in your car and drive to your doctor’s office. Your doctor sees you, diagnoses you with an ear infection and prescribes you, penicillin like they have dozens of times before. Today penicillin and other antibiotics are taken for granted. Before the 1920’s bacterial infections would do a lot more harm than just having an ear ache. If penicillin was not invented who knows how delayed today’s medicine would be.
Compounding all of these solutions, the pharmaceutical industry needs to conduct extensive research on developing new antibiotics for various pathogenic bacteria by studying the bacterial structure. This will help scientists to formulate ways of counteracting the functions of the various constituents of bacteria.
Alexander discovered penicillin by just a weird accident; According to the article, when bacteriologist Alexander Fleming left for his vacation one day in September of 1928 he left a mess in his laboratory, when he came about one month later he noticed that every dish he had left out in the open was all covered in mold. He examined the dishes to see if they had been contaminated. Out of the sudden Fleming focused his attention in one particular dish. The dish that had caught the attention of Alexander was covered in a lot of mold specific the mold had staphylococci culture it had also grown a bit of yellow-green mold. Fleming noticed a ring in the mold but when examined it; The ring was bacteria-free. The molds name was Penicillium Notatum. This seemed very unusual to Alexander Fleming. Believe it or not that was how penicillin was discovered.
In the last decade, the number of prescriptions for antibiotics has increases. Even though, antibiotics are helpful, an excess amount of antibiotics can be dangerous. Quite often antibiotics are wrongly prescribed to cure viruses when they are meant to target bacteria. Antibiotics are a type of medicine that is prone to kill microorganisms, or bacteria. By examining the PBS documentary Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria and the article “U.S. government taps GlaxoSmithKline for New Antibiotics” by Ben Hirschler as well as a few other articles can help depict the problem that is of doctors prescribing antibiotics wrongly or excessively, which can led to becoming harmful to the body.
The intended audience was National History Day judges, but may include those who are trying to learn the history of antibiotics. This is identifiable from other sources by being a compilation of historical data as well as primary facts. This contributed as a secondary source from which readers can understand how antibiotics were discovered, rather than how they influenced medicine.
Antibiotics have been vitally important for many years in treating infectious diseases in both, humans and animals. Their discovery was described as the miracle of the 20th century [1]. However the overuse of antibiotics caused the emergence of a new problem, antibiotic resistance.
The discovery of antibiotics is attributed to Alexander Fleming who discovered the first antibiotic to be commercially used (Penicillin) in approximately 1928. An antibiotic, also known as an antimicrobial, is a medication that is taken in order to either destroy or slow the growth rate of bacteria. Antibiotics are integral to the success of many medical practises, such as; surgical procedures, organ transplants, the treatment of cancer and the treatment of the critically ill. (Ramanan Laxminarayan, 2013)
Thesis: With the advent of antibiotics in 1929 Fleming said, "The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops.Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant."With the overuse of antibiotics today we have seen this very idea come to be.Over usage is caused most prevalently by a lack of education on the part of the patient.Thus stated, the way to overcome such a circumstance is to educate, not only the patient but also the physician.
There are many different forms of antiseptics in the world today. One of the first effective antiseptic was penicillin. Penicillin was discovered in 1929 by Alexander Fleming. It was a complete accident. Penicillin became a very important drug during World War II. The importance of penicillin was not directly seen as it took years before a usable form would be developed. Penicillin, despite the setbacks, has led to many new discoveries. Manufacturing problems and disinterest after discovery plagued penicillin, and yet the newly discovered drug would do wonders for people.
One of the most important breakthroughs in modern medicine and public health efforts is the discovery of Penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928. The effects of this discovery cannot be overstated; antibiotics have saved millions of lives and have significantly reduced morbidity and mortality in the global population (Fauci & Morens, 2012). The 1950s and 1970s saw the discovery of many new antibiotics classes, with no new classes of antibiotics discovered since the late 1980s (Aminov, 2010). While integral to the survival of many people, public health officials and the Centers for Disease Control have warned that the overuse and improper use of antibiotics by humans and industries can limit the effectiveness of antibiotics and create antibiotic resistant strains of diseases (Ventola, 2015).
Discovery and Development of Penicillin. (2014, April 4). Retrieved from American Chemical Society International Historic Chemical Landmarks: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/flemingpenicillin.html
In 1939, Dr. Howard Florey, a Nobel Laureate, and three colleagues at Oxford University began extensive research and were able to prove penicillin's ability to kill infectious bacteria. The current war with Germany reduced resources, and the British scientists turned to the United States for help, because they did not have enough results to produce a good quality of penicillin. In the United States, scientists were already working on fermentation methods to increase the growth rate of fung...