Wonder drug: penicillin
(1928, refined and purified 1941)

Penicillin is another modern drug with origins dating back to ancient Rome, when a mold named C. Xanthi Penicille AD Peniccile was used for medicinal purposes.

In 1928, Alexander Fleming, a British bacteriologist, got unusual results while culturing bacteria. A blue mold grew in the biological plate from a spore of fungus that had accidentally blown into the plate. All bacteria surrounding the mold died. Fleming studied the killer mold and called it penicillin. He became the first person to publish news of this unexpected germ-killer.

The discovery of penicillin ushered in the one of the greatest changes in modern medical history – the antibiotic era. Today, penicillin and other antibiotics are used to treat a number of common diseases and to prevent the onset of infections when our skin, our first barrier to fight off disease, is somehow broken through a simple cut or a more serious wound.