If you ask any educated person about who discovered penicillin, then in response you can hear the name Fleming. But if you look into Soviet encyclopedias published before the fifties of the last century, you will not find this name there. Instead of a 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 who, back in 1871, noticed that Penicillium glaucum mushrooms suppress the reproduction of many bacteria. So who really discovered penicillin?
Fleming
Indeed, the question of who and how discovered penicillin requires a more detailed study. Before Fleming, and even before these Russian doctors, Paracelsus and Avicenna knew about the properties of penicillin. But they could not isolate the substance that gives the mold healing powers. Only the microbiologist of St. Mary, that is, Fleming. And antibacterialThe scientist tested the properties of the discovered substance on his assistant, who fell ill with sinusitis. The doctor injected a small dose of penicillin into the maxillary cavity, and after three hours the patient's condition improved significantly. So, Fleming discovered penicillin, which he announced on September 13, 1929 in his report. This date is considered the birthday of antibiotics, but they began to be used later.
Research continues
Who discovered penicillin, the reader already knows, but it is worth noting that it was impossible to use the tool - it had to be cleaned. During the purification 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 delighted.
But here the pundits faced a new challenge: the mold grew very slowly, so Alexander decided to try a different kind of it, discovering along the way the penicillase enzyme, a substance that can neutralize penicillin produced by bacteria.
US vs England
The one who discovered penicillin could not start mass production of the drug in his homeland. But his assistants, Flory and Heatley, moved to the United States in 1941. There they received support and generous funding, but the work itself was strictly classified.
The success of a new pharmaceutical has hurt British pride. They tried to buy the technology, but the Americans asked for a colossal sum. And then in the Old World they rememberedFleming as the discoverer of a miracle substance. The journalists even made up the myth of the "Moldy Mary" to prove that the British had simply been robbed of their idea. And the US 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 a luminary of science, as he “simply drew attention to the gift of nature.”
Penicillin in the USSR
All biology textbooks talk about how Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. But nowhere you will 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 cost three times and estimated their knowledge at thirty million dollars.
Refusing, the USSR did what the British did: launched a duck that domestic microbiologist Zinaida Yermolyeva produced crustozin. This drug was an improved analogue of penicillin, which was stolen by capitalist spies. It was a fiction of pure water, but the woman really set up the production of the drug in her country, however, its quality turned out to be worse. Therefore, the authorities went to the trick: they bought the secret from Ernst Cheyne (one of Fleming's assistants) and began to produce the same penicillin as in America, and they betrayed crustosinoblivion. So, as it turns out, there is no answer to the question of who discovered penicillin in the USSR.
Disappointment
The power of penicillin, which was so highly regarded by the medical luminaries of the time, turned out to be not so powerful. As it turned out, over time, the microorganisms that cause diseases become immune to this drug. Instead of thinking about an alternative solution, scientists began to invent other antibiotics. But microbes have not been fooled to this day.
Not so long ago, the WHO announced that Fleming warned about the excessive use of antibiotics, which can lead to the fact that medicines will not be able to help with fairly simple diseases, since they will 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.
