Penicillin is the first widely used antibiotic, produced by Penicillium mold. Alexander Fleming observed in 1928 that a stray mold contaminating a bacterial culture plate inhibited nearby bacterial growth, but its development into a usable drug required the later work of Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, whose Oxford team purified and tested it in the early 1940s, enabling large-scale wartime production. This atlas records what the historical record supports and is not medical advice.
Facts
Disputed
DiscovererAlexander Flemings 1928 observation is credited as the discovery, but Howard Florey and Ernst Chains Oxford team turned it into a usable medicine in the early 1940s and share the 1945 Nobel Prize with Fleming for the achievement. 4 Fleming is credited with the initial 1928 observation; Florey and Chain are credited, alongside Fleming, with making it a practical drug, and all three shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945. Discovery Year Discovery Date Classification
Type/Classification Connections
Associated With
Alexander Fleming's 1928 discovery of penicillin is the first antibiotic effective against bacterial infection generally.
Source A History of MedicineLois N. Magner
Discovered By
Observed Penicillium mould inhibiting bacterial growth in 1928; the observation is credited as the discovery.
Source A History of MedicineLois N. Magner
Held Differently
Ernst Boris Chain, Healers Member of the Oxford team with Florey that purified and mass produced penicillin; shared the 1945 Nobel Prize.
Source A History of MedicineLois N. Magner
Howard Florey, Healers Led the Oxford team that turned Fleming's observation into a usable medicine in the early 1940s; shared the 1945 Nobel Prize with Fleming and Chain.
Source A History of MedicineLois N. Magner
Long-Form Articles
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.entity description, PenicillinQuote, entity description, Penicillin
Penicillin is the first widely used antibiotic, produced by Penicillium mold.
2. The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity
Roy Porter, W. W. Norton and Company, 1997
3. Wikipedia
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationDiscovery sectionQuote, Discovery section
He confirmed this observation with a subsequent experiment on 28 September 1928.
4. A History of Medicine
Lois N. Magner, CRC Press
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Discoverer
Historians of science, and Oxford University itself, have argued that Norman Heatley, the biochemist whose vacuum extraction and assay techniques made penicillin production practical, was unjustly excluded from the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which recognized only Fleming, Florey and Chain. Oxford awarded Heatley an honorary Doctor of Medicine in 1990, the first in the university's eight hundred year history, explicitly to correct the omission.
A dissenting reading, from Historians of science crediting Norman HeatleyEncyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Essays About This Entity (1 essay)
Four Bacterial Discoveries, Four Fights Over Who Gets Credit
Penicillin, one of the four discoveries this essay groups under bacteriological and antimicrobial discovery
Read the EssayFrequently Asked Questions
Did the 1945 Nobel Prize for penicillin leave anyone out?
Fleming, Florey and Chain shared the 1945 Nobel Prize, but historians and Oxford University itself argue Norman Heatley, whose vacuum extraction and assay techniques made penicillin production practical, was unjustly excluded; Oxford gave Heatley an honorary doctorate in 1990 to correct the omission.
Fleming is credited with the initial 1928 observation; Florey and Chain are credited, alongside Fleming, with making penicillin a practical drug, and all three shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Historians of science, and Oxford University itself, have argued that Norman Heatley, the biochemist whose vacuum extraction and assay techniques made penicillin production practical, was unjustly excluded from that prize. Oxford awarded Heatley an honorary Doctor of Medicine in 1990, the first in the university's eight hundred year history, explicitly to correct the omission.
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