If you ask any educated person about who discovered penicillin, then you can hear Fleming's surname in response. But if you look into the Soviet encyclopedias published before the fifties of the last century, then this name cannot be found 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 back in 1871 who noticed that the fungi Penicillium glaucum inhibit the reproduction of many bacteria. So who actually discovered penicillin?
Fleming
Indeed, the question of who discovered penicillin and how needs to be studied in more detail. Before Fleming, and even before the indicated Russian doctors, Paracelsus and Avicenna knew about the properties of penicillin. But they could not isolate the substance that gives the mold healing powers. This was possible only by the microbiologist of St. Mary, that is, Fleming. And the scientist tested the antibacterial properties of an open substance on his assistant, who had sinusitis. The doctor introduced a small dose of penicillin into the maxillary cavity and already after three hours the patient's condition improved significantly. So, Fleming discovered penicillin, which was reported on September 13, 1929 in his report. This date is considered the birthday of antibiotics, but they began to use them later.
Research continues
The reader already knows who discovered penicillin, but it is worth noting that it was impossible to use the remedy - it was to be cleaned. During the cleansing process, the formula became unstable, the substance lost its properties very quickly. And only in 1938, a group of scientists from Oxford University coped with this task. Alexander Fleming was thrilled.
But then the pundits faced a new challenge: mold grew very slowly, so Alexander decided to try a different species by discovering the enzyme penicillase, a substance that can neutralize penicillin produced by bacteria.
USA vs England
The one who discovered penicillin could not start mass production of the drug in his homeland. But his assistants, Flory and Heatley, in 1941 moved to the United States. There they received support and generous funding, but the work itself was strictly classified.
The success of the new pharmaceutical product has hit the British pride painfully. They tried to buy technology, but the Americans requested a whopping amount. And then in the Old World they remembered Fleming as the discoverer of a miracle substance. Journalists even invented the myth of “moldy Mary” to prove that their idea was simply stolen from the British. And the United States 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 to be the luminary of science, since he "simply drew attention to the gift of nature."
Penicillin in the USSR
All biology textbooks write about how Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. But nowhere else will you read about how the drug began to be produced in the Soviet Union. True, there is a legend that the substance was needed to treat General Vatutin, but Stalin forbade the use of an overseas drug. In order to master production as soon as possible, it was decided to buy technology. They even sent a delegation to the US Embassy. The Americans agreed, but during the negotiations they raised the value three times and valued their knowledge at thirty million dollars.
Having refused, the USSR did what the British did: launched the duck, that the domestic microbiologist Zinaida Yermolyeva produced crustozin. This drug was an improved analogue of penicillin, which was stolen by capitalist spies. This was a fiction of pure water, but the woman really arranged the production of the drug in her country, however, its quality turned out to be worse. Therefore, the authorities went on a trick: they bought a secret from Ernst Cheyne (one of Fleming's assistants) and began to produce the same penicillin as in America, and Krustozin was forgotten. So, as it turns out, there is no answer to the question of who discovered penicillin in the USSR.
Disappointment
The strength of penicillin, which was so highly valued by the medical luminaries of the time, was not so powerful. As it turned out, over time, the microorganisms that cause the disease acquire immunity to this drug. Instead of thinking about an alternative solution, scientists began to invent other antibiotics. But to this day microbes cannot be deceived.
Not so long ago, the WHO announced that Fleming had warned about excessive use of antibiotics, which could lead to drugs being unable to help with fairly simple illnesses, since they would no longer be able to harm microbes. And finding a solution to this problem is already the task of other generations of doctors. And you need to look for it now.