Penicillin was discovered by chance by Alexander Fleming. Whose work later established its full potential as an effective antibiotic?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Ernest Chain and Howard Florey
Penicillin was a chance discovery. Alexander Fleming, while working on Staphylococci bacteria, saw a mould in an unwashed culture plate around which the bacteria could not grow, and he named the chemical made by the mould Penicillin. Fleming did not develop it into a medicine himself. Its full potential as an effective antibiotic was established much later by Ernest Chain and Howard Florey. Penicillin was then used extensively to treat soldiers wounded in World War II, and Fleming, Chain and Florey shared the Nobel Prize for this work.
NCERT Extract:
Antibiotics – “… Alexander Fleming while working on Staphylococci bacteria, once observed a mould growing in one of his unwashed culture plates around which Staphylococci could not grow. He found out that it was due to a chemical produced by the mould and he named it Penicillin after the mould Penicillium notatum. However, its full potential as an effective antibiotic was established much later by Ernest Chain and Howard Florey. This antibiotic was extensively used to treat American soldiers wounded in World War II.”