This is the story of the groundbreaking discovery of the antibiotic penicillin, which revolutionized the field of medicine. In 1928, Alexander Fleming, a Scottish biologist, discovered the antibiotic properties of a mold he had been studying. This discovery changed the course of medical history, as penicillin
The discovery of penicillin was one of the most important scientific discoveries in the history of medicine. Ancient societies used moulds to treat infections and in the following centuries many people observed the inhibition of bacterial growth by moulds. While working at St Mary's Hospital in London in 1928, Scottish physician Alexander Fleming was the first to experimentally demonstrate that a Penicillium mould secretes an antibacterial substance, which he named "penicillin". The mould was found to be a variant of Penicillium notatum, a contaminant of a bacterial culture in his laboratory. The work on penicillin at St Mary's ended in 1929.