The Discovery of
Antibiotics
Dr Carolyn Dean is a medical doctor and naturopath. She has authored and co-authored over 35 books
Dr. Carolyn Dean
Penicillin, the first true antibiotic, was discovered in 1928 by Professor of Bacteriology Alexander Fleming, working out of St. Mary’s Hospital in London. The discovery occurred almost by accident, as Fleming was examining petri dishes containing colonies of the Staphylococcus bacteria upon his return from holiday.
P r o per t i es of Mold Fleming noticed something unusual happening in one of his petri dishes, which had developed a patch of mold while he was away. In the area around the mold, no bacteria had grown. This mold ‘juice’ was later identified as Penicillin notatum, a rare strain that was found to be ca-
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Dr. Carolyn Dean
pable of killing a wide variety of harmful bacteria and therefore had the potential to be able to treat various bacterial infections in humans if it could be isolated.
Pur if icat io n Fleming’s discovery was not of immediate medical use, as the penicillin he and his team managed to isolate was highly unstable. However, by 1939, another team at Oxford University began the process that would turn penicillin from an unstable material into a usable medicine. War time conditions made it difficult to industrialize production of penicillin, but by 1945 the drug was widely available at pharmacies without restrictions.
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Dr Carolyn Dean
You can read about treatments for superbugs – antibiotic-resistant bugs – by visiting the blog of Dr. Carolyn Dean.