From what is the commonly used antibiotic penicillin obtained?

Question

a. synthetic means
b. a fungus
c. an algae
d. bacterium

Answer 1

Penicillin was discovered as a mould growing on a dish, by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928 at St Mary's Hospital in London W2, where there is a brown plaque on the wall by the front entrance to commemorate the discovery.

So b is the right answer

Penicillin refers to a group of β-lactam antibiotics used in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible, usually Gram-positive, organisms. The name “penicillin” can also be used in reference to a specific member of the penicillin group.

Fleming noticed a halo of inhibition of bacterial growth around a contaminant blue-green mould on a Staphylococcus plate culture. Fleming concluded that the mould was releasing a substance that was inhibiting bacterial growth. He grew a pure culture of the mould and discovered that it was a Penicillium mould, now known to be Penicillium chrysogenum. Fleming coined the term "penicillin" to describe the filtrate of a broth culture of the Penicillium mould.

In 1939, Australian scientist Howard Walter Florey and a team of researchers at the University of Oxford made significant progress in showing the in vivo bactericidal action of penicillin. Their attempts to treat humans failed due to insufficient volumes of penicillin, but they proved its harmlessness and effect in mice. In 1942 John Bumstead and Orvan Hess became the first in the world to successfully treat a patient using penicillin.

During World War II, penicillin made a major difference in the number of deaths and amputations caused by infected wounds amongst Allied forces. Availability was severely limited, however, by the difficulty of manufacturing large quantities of penicillin and by the rapid renal clearance of the drug necessitating frequent dosing. Penicillins are actively secreted and about 80% of a penicillin dose is cleared within three to four hours of administration. During those times it became common procedure to collect the urine from patients being treated so that the penicillin could be isolated and reused.

The chemical structure of penicillin was determined by Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin in the early 1940s, enabling synthetic production. Penicillins have the molecular formula R-C9 H11 N2 O4 S, where R is a variable side chain.

Florey and his assistant Ernst Boris Chain discovered a method of mass producing the drug. Florey and Chain shared the 1945 Nobel prize in medicine with Fleming for this work. Penicillin has since become the most widely used antibiotic to date

Answer 2

Mostly all penicillins are produced by synthetic means. It is cheapest method. Scientists Florey, Chain, Fleming won the 1945 Nobel Prize for the discovery of mass production.

Answer 3

My science teacher told me that in the olden days people would scrape the mould off of jam etc to put on your infected bits and then from this was discovered penecillin..but then he was a bit of a nut so he could of made that up

Answer 4

It's usually made synthetically nowadays to ensure uniformity and quality control. A.

Answer 5

mold. ("B") And if you're wondering, it was Alexander Flemming whose laboratory got messy enough to have moldy petri dishes lying about, but instead of throwing it out, he noticed a ring of dead bacteria around the moldy spots. That's so cool!

Answer 6

blue-green mold on a Staphylococcus plate culture will produce Penicillium chrysogenum.

Answer 7

d. a bacterium
Its named P. penicillium or like that

Answer 8

it's a type of mould that grows on the skin of oranges, so i suppose that would be 'B' :-)

PS This is an incredibly lazy way to do your homework. lol. peace.

Answer 9

fungi
Penicillium notatum
&
Penicillium chrysogenum

Answer 10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillin