: How was penicillin discovered, and was the use of it immediately realised? I am interested in exactly how penicillin was discovered, and did they realise what it does immediately? I would also like to know how quickly it

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The discovery of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming was accidental.

In 1927 he had been investigating the properties of staphylococci and when he returned to his laboratory after few weeks (which was often untidy), to his surprise one culture was contaminated with a fungus and the colonies of staphylococci immediately surrounding the fungus had been destroyed, whereas other staphylococci colonies farther away were normal. He identified the mould as being from the Penicillium genus and after some months of calling it "mould juice", named the substance it released penicillin on 7 March 1929.

Fleming would later say:

"When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn't plan to revolutionise all medicine by discovering the world's first antibiotic, or bacteria killer, but I suppose that was exactly what I did."

Source: Sir Alexander Fleming

See also: Discovery of Penicillin