it is attributed to the Scottish physician and biologist Alexander Fleming.
In 1928, Fleming conducted research on some pathogenic bacteria, growing them in special culture plates. One of these plates was contaminated with a fungus, the Penicillium notatum (now known as Penicillium chrysogenum).
The thing that struck Fleming the most was not so much the fact that the fungus had grown in the culture medium, but the fact that it was able to kill all the bacteria around it, creating a halo of inhibition of bacterial growth around it. to their own colonies.
Fleming, immediately understood that the "antimicrobial activity could be attributed to a substance produced by that same mushroom and isolated it in an attempt to identify it. After several attempts, the Scottish doctor was finally able to isolate a sort of" juice "from that mushroom which he renamed with the name of "penicillin".
Later, Fleming administered his penicillin to animals infected with the same bacteria that were sensitive to this substance in vitro and was able to obtain positive results. The success obtained in animals prompted the doctor to try the administration of penicillin even to patients who had contracted infections. In 1929, Fleming then decided to go public with his research and the results of his clinical tests. Unfortunately, due to a series of unfavorable circumstances and the inability to purify penicillin in such a way as to make it safely and on a large scale even in men, this promising antimicrobial was sidelined.
Ten years later, a group of British chemists (including, Abraham, Chain, Florey and Heatley) - after extensive research and several attempts - finally succeeded in isolating the precious antibiotic. In 1941, clinical trials began to establish the efficacy and safety of penicillin use in human infections and in 1943 large scale production began.
