In 1928, Alexander Fleming made a crucial discovery that lead to the production of the “Wonder Drug”, penicillin. 

After leaving some used culture plates unattended for several weeks, he arrived back from his vacation to find fungus growing on them.  On one plate, the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria that had been cultured there appeared to be inhibited by the fungus that had appeared. This fungus was found to be Penicillium notatum and everywhere it appeared on the plate, the bacterial growth was inhibited.   [See picture]

With the help of Howard Florey [a pathologist] and Ernst Chain [a biochemist], the β-lactam antibiotic, penicillin, was purified and produced on an industrial scale for widespread use for the first time in the early 1940’s.¹

Want to know more about the Manufacture of Penicillin?