The miraculous mold…
Fleming’s
Life Saving
Discovery
A lexander Fleming is
credited with the
discovery of penicillin; perhaps
the greatest achievement in
His famous discovery happened
on the day that Fleming
returned to his laboratory
having spent August on holiday
medicine in the 20th Century. with his family. Before leaving,
By Jay Hardy, CLS, SM (NRCM) he had stacked all his cultures
Having grown up in Scotland, of staphylococci on a bench in a
Fleming moved to London corner of his laboratory. On
Jay Hardy is the founder and where he attended medical returning, Fleming noticed that
president of Hardy Diagnostics. school. After serving his one culture was contaminated
He began his career in
microbiology as a Medical country as a medic in World with a fungus, and that the
Technologist in Santa Barbara, War I, he returned to London colonies of staphylococci that
California. where he began his career as a had immediately surrounded it
In 1980, he began manufacturing bacteriologist. There he began had been destroyed, whereas
culture media for the local his search for more effective other colonies farther away
hospitals. Today, Hardy antimicrobial agents. Having were normal.
Diagnostics is the third largest
culture media manufacturer in the witnessed the death of many
United States. wounded soldiers in the war, he
noticed that in many cases the
To ensure rapid and reliable turn
around time, Hardy Diagnostics use of harsh antiseptics did
maintains seven distribution more harm than good.
centers, and produces over 3,500
products used in clinical and
industrial microbiology By 1928, Fleming was
laboratories throughout the world. investigating the properties of
staphylococci. He was already
well-known from his earlier
work, and had developed a
reputation as a brilliant Figure 1: Alexander Fleming in his
researcher, but his laboratory in London laboratory.
the basement of St. Mary’s
Hospital in London was often "When I woke up just after
untidy. dawn on September 28, 1928, I
certainly didn't plan to
revolutionize all medicine by Pathology, but little attention Fleming finally abandoned
discovering the world's first was paid to his article. penicillin. Not long after he
antibiotic, or bacteria killer," did, Howard Florey and Ernst
Fleming would later say, "But I Chain at the Radcliffe Infirmary
suppose that was exactly what I in Oxford took up researching
did.” and mass-producing it with
funds from the U.S. and British
Fleming grew the mold in a governments. They started mass
pure culture and found that it production after the bombing of
produced a substance that killed Pearl Harbor. When D-Day
a number of pathogenic arrived, they had made enough
bacteria. He identified the mold penicillin to treat all the
as being from Penicillium wounded Allied forces.
notanum, and after some
months of calling it "mold Figure 2: Fleming’s photo of the It was Ernst Chain and Edward
juice" named the substance it fungus, Penicillium notatum, Abraham who finally developed
inhibiting Staphylocccus.
released penicillin in March of the method to isolate and
1929. concentrate penicillin. Shortly
Fleming continued his
after the team published its first
investigations, but found that
“…I certainly didn't plan to cultivating penicillium was
results in 1940, Fleming
telephoned Howard Florey,
revolutionize all medicine by quite difficult. After having
Chain's head of department, to
grown the mold, it was even
discovering the world's first more difficult to isolate the
say that he would be visiting
antibiotic…” antibiotic agent.
within the next few days. When
Chain heard that he was
coming, he remarked, "Good
Fleming's impression was that
He investigated its positive anti- God! I thought he was dead."
because of the problem of
bacterial effect on many
producing it in quantity, and
organisms, and noticed that it
because its action appeared to
affected bacteria such as
be rather slow, penicillin would
staphylococci and many other
not be important in treating
Gram positive pathogens that
infection. Fleming also became
cause scarlet fever, pneumonia,
convinced that penicillin would
meningitis and diphtheria, but
not last long enough in the
not typhoid fever or paratyphoid
human body (in vivo) to kill
fever, which are caused by
bacteria effectively. Many
Gram-negative bacteria, for
clinical tests were inconclusive, After the team had developed a
which he was seeking a cure at
probably because it had been method of purifying penicillin
the time. It also effectively
used as a surface antiseptic. In to an effective first stable form
killed Neisseria gonorrhoeae,
the 1930s, Fleming’s trials in 1940, several clinical trials
although this bacterium is Gram
occasionally showed more ensued. Their amazing success
negative.
promise, and he continued until inspired the team to develop
1940 to try to interest a chemist methods for mass production
Fleming published his
skilled enough to further refine and distribution in 1945, which
discovery in 1929 in the British
usable penicillin. was just in time to be of use in
Journal of Experimental
World War II.
Fleming was very aware of the
ensuing bacterial resistance to
his new drug, and he cautioned
about the over use of penicillin
in his many speeches around the
world. He warned not to use
penicillin unless there was a
properly diagnosed reason for it
Figure 3: The chemical structure of
to be used, and that if it were
penicillin showing the beta-lactam
ring. used, never to use too little, or
for too short a period, since
The structure of the penicillin these are the circumstances
Fleming was modest about his under which bacterial resistance
part in the development of molecule features the β-Lactam
ring, which inhibits the to antibiotics develops.
penicillin, describing his fame
as the "Fleming Myth" and he formation of the peptidoglycan
praised Florey and Chain for cross-links in the bacterial cell
transforming the laboratory wall, but has no direct effect on
curiosity into a practical drug. cell wall degradation. The
In fact, several others reported relatively small size of the
the bacteriostatic effects of molecule allows it to deeply
Penicillium earlier than penetrate the cell wall.
Fleming. The use of bread with
a blue mold (it is presumed, In the early days, before
resistance developed, penicillin Figure 4: The early days of
Penicillium) as a means of Penicillium culturing and penicillin
treating infected wounds was a was widely used and effective production at the Dunn School of
staple of folk medicine in in treating Staph and Strep Pathology in Oxford, England.
Europe since the Middle Ages. infections, as well as syphilis
and gonorrhea. It is still highly The challenge of mass-
However, Fleming was the first effective against Groups A and producing this drug was
to discover the properties of the B Strep infections. daunting. In 1942, the first
active substance, giving him the patient was treated for
privilege of naming it penicillin. streptococcal septicemia with
He also kept, grew and U.S. made penicillin produced
distributed the original mold for by Merck & Co. Half of the
twelve years, and continued total supply produced at the
until 1940 to try to get help time was used on that one
from any chemist who had patient. In July 1943, the War
enough skill to make penicillin. Production Board drew up a
plan for the mass distribution of
penicillin stocks to Allied
troops fighting in Europe.
Penicillin is actively excreted, Cuter, was also involved in the
and about 80% of a penicillin infamous Tuskegee syphilis
dose is cleared from the body experiments.
within three to four hours of
administration. Indeed, during
the early penicillin era, the drug
was so scarce and so highly
valued that it became common
to collect the urine from
patients being treated, so that
the penicillin in the urine could
be isolated and reused.
In a 1946 to 1948 study in
Figure 5: Mass production of Guatemala, U.S. researchers
penicillin at Merck & Co. in 1945. used prostitutes to infect prison
inmates, insane asylum patients,
A moldy cantaloupe in a Peoria, and Guatemalan soldiers with
Illinois, market in 1943 was syphilis and other sexually
found to contain the best and transmitted diseases, in order to
highest-quality penicillin after a test the effectiveness of Since this famous discovery in
worldwide search. The penicillin in treating sexually 1928, many more effective
discovery of the cantaloupe, and transmitted diseases. They later antimicrobials have been
the results of fermentation tried infecting people with developed which retain the beta
research on corn steep liquor at "direct inoculations made from lactam ring that is characteristic
the Northern Regional Research syphilis bacteria poured into the of penicillin, such as
Laboratory at Peoria, Illinois, men's penises and on forearms carbenicillin, methicillin,
allowed the United States to and faces that were slightly imipenem, and the
produce 2.3 million doses in abraded . . . or in a few cases cephalosporins.
time for the invasion of through spinal punctures.”
Normandy in the spring of Approximately 1,300 people For his important life saving
1944. By 1945, over 646 billion were infected as part of the discovery, he shared the Nobel
units per year were being study (including orphan Prize in Physiology or Medicine
produced. children). This study, now in 1945 with Howard Florey
highly criticized for its and Ernst Chain.
unethical treatment of its
subjects, was sponsored by the
Public Health Service, the
National Institutes of Health Jay Hardy, CLS, SM (NRCM)
and the Pan American Health Santa Maria, California
Sanitary Bureau (now the
World Health Organization's
Pan American Health
Organization) and the The information contained in this article is for
educational purposes only and is not intended
Guatemalan government. The nor recommended as a substitute for medical
director of this study, John advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
