Who discovered penicillin? The history of penicillin discovery

If you ask any educated person about who discovered penicillin, then in response you can hear the name of Fleming. But if you look into the Soviet encyclopedias published before the fifties of the last century, you can not find that name there. Instead of the British microbiologist, the fact is mentioned that the Russian doctors Polotebnov and Manassein were the first to pay attention to the healing effect of mold. It was true, it was these scientists, as early as 1871, that the fungi Penicillium glaucum inhibited the multiplication of many bacteria. So who discovered penicillin in fact?

Fleming

Indeed, the question of who and how discovered penicillin, requires more detailed study. Before Fleming, and even before the indicated Russian doctors, the properties of penicillin were known to Paracelsus and Avicenna. But to isolate the substance that gives the mold healing powers, they could not. This succeeded only microbiologist of St. Mary, that is, Fleming. And the scientist tested the antibacterial properties of the open substance on his assistant who fell ill with sinusitis. In the maxillary cavity doctor introduced a small dose of penicillin and after three hours the patient's condition improved significantly. So Fleming discovered penicillin, reported on September 13, 1929 in his report. This date is considered the birthday of antibiotics, but they were used later.

Research continues

Who discovered penicillin, the reader is already aware, but it is worth noting that it was impossible to use the remedy - it was to be cleared. During the purification process, the formula became unstable, the substance lost its properties very quickly. And only in 1938 a group of scientists at Oxford University coped with this task. Alexander Fleming was delighted.

But then a new task arose for the learned men: the mold grew very slowly, so Alexander decided to try another form of it, opening the penicillase enzyme in passing - a substance capable of neutralizing the penicillin produced by bacteria.

USA vs England

Anyone who discovered penicillin could not start mass production of the drug at home. But his assistants, Flory and Heatley, in 1941 moved to the United States. There they received support and generous funding, but the works themselves were strictly classified.

The success of the application of the new pharmaceutical means has painfully hit the self-esteem of the British. They tried to buy technology, but the Americans asked for a huge amount. And then in the Old World they remembered Fleming as the pioneer of the miracle substance. Journalists even wrote the myth of "moldy Mary" to prove that the British simply stole their idea. And the US was forced to share secret technology. Fleming himself received the Nobel Prize for his enormous contribution to medicine and the discovery of penicillin, but he himself did not consider himself a science luminary, as he "simply paid attention to the gift of nature".

Penicillin in the USSR

In all the textbooks on biology, they write about how Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. But nowhere will you read about how the drug began to be produced in the Soviet Union. There is, however, a legend that the substance was needed to treat General Vatutin, but Stalin forbade the use of overseas drug. To master the production as soon as possible, it was decided to buy the technology. Even sent a delegation to the US Embassy. The Americans agreed, but during the talks they raised the value three times and estimated their knowledge at thirty million dollars.

Refusing to do so, the USSR did what the British did: launched a duck that the domestic microbiologist Zinaida Yermolieva produced a crustacean. This drug was an improved analogue of penicillin, which was abducted by capitalist spies. It was a fiction of pure water, but the woman really established the production of the drug in her country, however, its quality turned out to be worse. Therefore, the authorities went to the trick: they bought a secret from Ernest Cheyn (one of Fleming's assistants) and began to produce the same penicillin as in America, and crustosin was betrayed. So, as it turns out, there is no answer to the question of who discovered penicillin in the USSR.

Disappointment

The power of penicillin, which was so highly valued by the medical luminaries of that time, was not so powerful. As it turned out, with time, the microorganisms that cause disease, acquire immunity to this drug. Instead of thinking about an alternative solution, scientists began to invent other antibiotics. But to deceive microbes it is not possible and to this day.

Not so long ago, WHO announced that Fleming had warned about excessive use of antibiotics, which could lead to the fact that drugs can not help with fairly simple diseases, because they are no longer able to harm microbes. And to find a solution to this problem is already the task of other generations of doctors. And we need to look for it now.