Penicillin was discovered in 1928 by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming. People began using it to treat infections in 1942. There are several enhanced penicillin families which are effective against additional bacteria; these include the antistaphylococcal penicillins, aminopenicillins and the antipseudomonal penicillins. They are derived from "Penicillium" fungi. The term "penicillin" is often used generically to refer to benzylpenicillin (penicillin G, the original penicillin found in 1928), procaine benzylpenicillin (procaine penicillin), benzathine benzylpenicillin (benzathine penicillin), and phenoxymethylpenicillin (penicillin V). Procaine penicillin and benzathine penicillin have the same antibacterial activity as benzylpenicillin but act for a longer period of time. Phenoxymethylpenicillin is less
History of penicillin patients (one adult, the others infants) of eye infections, although a fifth patient was not so lucky. At Oxford, Howard Walter Florey organized a large and very skilled biochemical research team, notable among them Ernst Boris Chain and Norman Heatley, to undertake clinical trials and produce a stable penicillin in quantity. In 1940, Chain and Edward Abraham reported the first indication of antibiotic resistance to penicillin, an "E. coli" strain that produced the penicillinase enzyme, which was capable of breaking down penicillin and completely negating its antibacterial effect. Between 1941 and 1943, Moyer, Coghill and Raper at the USDA Northern