structure of all the penicillins consists of a thiazolidine ring fused with a beta-lactam ring‚ creating a fundamental nucleus (also known as 6-amino penicillanic acid) crucial for their antibacterial activity. A wide variety of semisynthetic penicillins are produced by altering the composition of the side chains attached to this nucleus.The molecular formula of penicillin is C16H18N2O4S and weight of 334.39 g/mol‚ each base with a variable side chain‚ “R” that differentiates the penicillins from one another
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it "penicillin‚" after the mold that produced it. Thinking he had found an enzyme more powerful than lysozyme‚ Fleming decided to investigate further. What he found out‚ though‚ was that it was not an enzyme at all‚ but an antibiotic -- one of the first antibiotics to be discovered. Further development of the substance was not a one-man operation‚ as his previous efforts had been‚ so Fleming recruited two young researchers. The three men unfortunately failed to stabilize and purify penicillin‚ but
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Penicillin would be used to treat infections that wounded and ill soldiers suffered during World War II. This proved that penicillin had a vital importance to save lives. Penicillin prevented thousands of wartime deaths. After the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan on December 7‚ 1941‚ it became clear that a mass amount of penicillin needed to be produced in order to win the war. The U.S. was able to produce 2.3 million portions of penicillin in order to prepare for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Penicillin
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Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 which was the first antibiotic that fights bacteria. During the 1900’s pneumonia was one of the leading killers in America prior to the discovery of penicillin. Penicillin is important as it prevents previous life-threatening infections like pneumonia‚ blood infection‚ meningitis‚ and strep throat. In addition‚ because of penicillin‚ several amputations‚ and deaths (due to infection) during the second world war decreased. Many people have benefited
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The Discovery of Penicillin Thousands of infectious diseases that existed and caused devastating epidemics before the mid-1900s‚ are now completely eradicated or almost one-hundred percent preventable. In addition to those thousands of diseases‚ there was also the risk of infection any time someone acquired so much as a paper cut. If they did not take the time to clean their cut properly and rid it of any bad bacteria‚ they were in danger. Soldiers wounded on a battlefield‚ for instance‚ risked
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Benjamin Garden Penicillin There are very few drugs in history that have completely revolutionized the medical industry. Penicillin is known to be the most impactful drug in the world. It saved millions of lives throughout the 20th century acting not only as a life savor‚ but also as a sign of hope that common terminal illnesses could be cured. Penicillin expedited recovery time in World War II therefore allowing more soldiers to keep fighting for their country. The discovery and mass production
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Case 1: Meera on penicillin Meera‚ a ten-year girl‚ was brought by her mom to the clinic because of persistent coughing and malaise. She had bacterial upper respiratory tract infection and was prescribed amoxicillin. They left the clinic and bought the medicine. Within an hour after ingesting the drug‚ Meera’s tongue was swollen and complained of difficulty of breathing. Her mum immediately dialed “000”. Penicillin is a bacteriostatic group of antibiotics which inhibit the cell wall synthesis of
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Just like potato chips‚ silly putty‚ and corn flakes‚ penicillin was an accident. Many people contributed to the bringing about of penicillin. The discovery of penicillin‚ the history of it are two very important subjects on how it became what it is today. First of all‚ penicillin was discovered by a bacteriologist Alexander Fleming. This scientist discovered it by accident. He went away for a while and when he came back a mold was covering all his petri dishes. Fleming did some testing with a particular
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Enterococcus Faecalis Sensitivity Towards Ampicillin‚ Penicillin‚ and Tetracycline Introduction Enterococci are bacteria that are included in the intestinal flora of humans and are relatively harmless. One method Enterococci maintain a symbiotic relationship is by hydrolyzing esculin in the presence of bile (Susan L. Fraser‚ 2012). However Enterococci are in the top three-nosocomial infections. When infected‚ enterococci can cause numerous infections such as urinary tract infection coupled with
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Fleming was convinced that penicillin could not last long enough in the human body to kill pathogenic bacteria‚ and stopped studying it after 1931. He restarted clinical trials in 1934‚ and continued to try to get someone to purify it until 1940 The chemical structure of penicillin was determined by Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin in the early 1940s. Penicillin has since become the most widely used antibiotic to date‚ and is still used for many Gram-positive bacterial infections. A team of Oxford research
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