History of penicillin History of penicillin The history of penicillin follows a number of observations and discoveries of apparent evidence of antibiotic activity in molds before the modern isolation of the chemical penicillin in 1928. There are anecdotes about ancient societies using molds to treat infections, and in the following centuries many people observed the inhibition of bacterial growth by various molds. However, it is unknown if the species involved were "Penicillium" species or if the antimicrobial substances produced were penicillin. The Scottish physician Alexander Fleming was the first to suggest that a "Penicillium" mold must secrete an antibacterial substance, and the first
History of penicillin Regional Research Laboratory (NRRL) in Peoria, Illinois, United States, developed methods for industrialized penicillin production and isolated higher-yielding strains of the "Penicillium" fungus. In December 1942, survivors of the Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston were the first burn patients to be successfully treated with penicillin. Simultaneous research by Jasper H. Kane and other Pfizer scientists in Brooklyn developed the practical, deep-tank fermentation method for production of large quantities of pharmaceutical-grade penicillin. Dorothy Hodgkin determined the correct chemical structure of penicillin using X-ray crystallography at Oxford in 1945. In Kundl, Tyrol, Austria, in 1952, Hans Margreiter and Ernst Brandl of Biochemie