Penicillin is a widely used antibiotic agent, derived from the penicillium mould. Penicillin was discovered by bacteriologist Alexander Fleming at St Mary’s Hospital in London in 1928. He observed that a blue-green mould had contaminated a plate culture of Staphylococcus and the colonies of bacteria, adjacent to the mould, were being dissolved.
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Research led by the University of Warwick has uncovered exactly how the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae has become resistant to the antibiotic penicillin. The same research could also open up MRSA to attack by penicillin and help create a library of designer antibiotics to use against a range of other dangerous bacteria.
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Until now, only the intricate machinery inside cells could take a mix of enzyme ingredients, blend them together and deliver a natural product with an elaborate chemical structure such as penicillin.
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The health benefits of epicatechin, a compound found in cocoa, are so striking that it may rival penicillin and anaesthesia in terms of importance to public health, reports Marina Murphy in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI. Norman Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told C&I that epicatechin is so important that it should be considered a vitamin.
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