Penicillin Today

Have you ever been to the doctor and then to the chemist and brought home some pink medicine that tasted like fruit? That was probably penicillin . Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by accident 70 years ago and Howard Florey and his team made it into a life saving medicine over 55 years ago. Penicillin was the first antibiotic. It killed harmful bacteria that caused infections. Before penicillin, people died from simple infections. Now they can be cured in a matter of days.

Types of Penicillin

Penicillin is available in liquid, capsules, tablets and injections. The liquid penicillin is flavoured to taste like fruit so young children will enjoy taking their medicine. Any medicine with "cillin" at the end of its name is a type of penicillin. Synthetic penicillin is also known as Ampicillin, Oxacillin, Cloxacillin and Dicloxacillin.


Use of Penicillin Today

Even though now there are also many other antibiotics available, penicillin is still given to patients to fight certain bacterial infections. If you have a viral infection, penicillin or other antibiotics do not work. They kill bacteria not viruses. However, sometimes viral diseases are accompanied by bacterial infections. For example, people with the 'flu' can develop pneumonia caused by bacteria. The virus infection weakens the body's defences, so that bacterial infections can easily start. When this happens, antibiotics are of value.

Production Today

Even though there has been an enormous amount of research into antibiotics in the last 50 years, penicillin is still produced in much the same way as it was in 1943.

Penicillin is not made from the same mould that Howard Florey used in the 1940’s. Instead of Penicillium notatum , Penicillium chrysogenum is used because it produces more penicillin. It is now made in large amounts in enormous vats.

Some bacteria have become resistant to penicillin. Before long these bacteria multiply and the infection becomes uncontrollable by penicillin. To help overcome this scientists have developed a [ semi-synthetic ] penicillin. To do this they change the penicillin molecule and produce a range of penicillin drugs that fights particular bacteria more effectively.

How much is made each year?

Penicillin is still manufactured in large amounts. Approximately 50 million kilograms is produced world wide each year. You only require a small amount of penicillin to cure a small infection. Adult dosage
is 250 to 500 mg every 6 hours for 10 days. Dosage for a child is 25 to 90 mg depending on their weight. There are a lot of dosages in 50 million kilograms. Penicillin is still used daily in every country in the world.

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