History of penicillin

Making penicillin history 

Alexander Fleming spent the next decade exploring ways to mass produce penicillin and trying to overcome its tendency to degenerate within a few hours of being isolated from the mold. When World War II began, a massive effort was launched in both England and the United States to develop a durable penicillin that could be used in large quantities. In 1942, the US Northern Regional Research Laboratory in Peoria Illinois, isolated Penicillium chrysogenum from a moldy melon and solved the perplexing problem.

The Nobel Prize for penicillin - Sir Alexander Fleming

Within a year, penicillin was saving thousands of lives on battlefields and around the world. by 1945, it was available on the civilian market, having completely revolutionised the treatment of disease. In that same year, Sir Alexander Fleming and tow of his colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine.