The Greatest Discovery in Biomedicine: Penicillin

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Recommended: How did war help the development of penicillin

Pathogenic bacteria are microorganisms that contribute to development of bacterial diseases. There are infectious diseases well known in the historical context that caused epidemics, such as plague, smallpox, cholera, typhoid, and typhus (Wassenaar, 2009). In order to prevent or cure diseases the special medications are used which are known as antibiotics. Antibiotics are chemicals that kill, injure or inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria. Consumption pick of anitibiotics started with discovery of Penicillin which played significant role in the pharmaceutics. According to American Chemical Society (2004) the one of the greatest discoveries is the discovery of the Penicillin. Before the existence of antibiotics people were dying in the hospitals just from the pathogenic bacteria in their wounds.

The history of using Penicillin as a medication begins in ancient times when Egyptians were putting bread with molds on bleeding wounds. However, it is assumed that the discovery of the penicillin as antibiotic belongs to Alexander Fleming in 1928. American Chemical Society (2004) states that Alexander Fleming was examining petri dishes with the colonies of pathogenic bacteria when saw the unusual thing: in the petri dish contaminated with mold bacteria were not growing at all. As a result, the work of separation of the substance that was killing different bacteria began, but was not successful.

The experiments failed by Fleming were continued in 1939 by Howard Florey, Ernst Chain, and their colleagues at Oxford University. Due to the war it was difficult for scientists to perform experiments of purifying Penicillin, while hospitals which were overfilled with patients needed medicine which will cure all bacterial diseases. In 1940 F...

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...er to cure the particular bacterial diseases the cocktail of different antibiotics is being used, but even this is not effective enough. The main goal of present pharmaceutical companies is to find a drug which would be as effective as penicillin was in 1940’s.

References:

American Chemical Society. 2004. The discovery and development of penicillin.

http://acswebcontent.acs.org/ (accessed September 2, 2011)

Betsy, T., and J. Keogh. 2005. Microbiology Demystified. USA: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing

Chemistry of Life. 2011. Discovery of Penicillin. http://portal.acs.org/ (accessed September 3, 2011)

Mulvey R. , A. E. Simor.2009. Antimicrobial resistance in hospitals: How concerned

Wassenaar, T. 2009. Bacterial diseases in history. http://www.bacteriamuseum.org/cms/special- features/bacterial-diseases-in-history.html (Acessed September 2, 2011)

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