The history of antibiotics is classifiable in two segments: Early history and modern history. A landmark in the history of antibiotics is the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming.
Antibiotics
An introduction
Infections are very common to human life and cause significant number of diseases that have an adverse effect on human health. Most of the diseases caused by bacterial can be prevented, managed and treated with the help of a group of compounds with the collective name: Antibiotics.
Definition
Antibiotics can be roughly defined as the variety of substances derived from bacterial sources (microorganisms) that have the ability to control the growth of or kill other bacteria. However, synthetic chemicals that are related to the natural antibiotics also have a similar effect on microbial growth making antibiotics an industry in it.
There are many types of antibiotics namely, antibacterials, anti-virals, antifungals, anti-parasitics. Some of the antibiotics have an effect on a wide range of microorganisms and are thus called broad-spectrum antibiotics while there are some that are effective against a very few microorganisms, which are called narrow spectrum antibiotics. The most frequently used antibiotic is anti-bacterial.
This is sort of familiar as kids receive ampicillin for an ear infection or penicillin for strep throat. Antibiotics have saved many human lives over the last few decades. Major illnesses that once killed thousands of people especially youngsters, have now been eradicated in many parts of the world by the use of vaccinations. The discovery of anti-microbial drugs was one of the main medical discoveries of 20th century. With the discovery of the effect of these drugs on harmful bacteria, it became possible to combat infections of a wide variety.
With the discovery of Penicillin dawned the era of anti-biotics, which provided a powerfully ally to the body’s inbuilt defences. In 1920s British scientist Alexander Fleming discovered Penicilin by accident when working in his lab of St Mary’s hospital in London, he observed that colonies of the commonly occurring Staphylococcus aureus bacteria had been killed by mold growing on the same petri-dish. Fleming named this mould Penicillin. The substance released by this mould could dissolve bacteria effectively and so Fleming and other conducted a wide range of tests that showed the ability of penicillin to kill infectious bacteria. Over some time, researchers in Europe and United states began to conduct various tests of their own and developed and perfected many antibiotics that were successfully tested on animals and then humans.
Around 1941, it was widely realized that even miniscule quantities of antibiotics were able to cure serious infections. Fleming was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to Physiology and Medicine.
Indian CRO & CRO in India deals in the clinical research of all the components related to pharmaceutical company and help us to acquire a better product.
