The history of antibiotics goes back a surprisingly long way

Ancient times

• Greeks and Indians used moulds and other plants to treat infections.
• In Greece and Serbia, mouldy bread was traditionally used to treat wounds and infections.
• Warm soil was used in Russia by peasants to cure infected wounds.
• Sumerian doctors gave patients beer soup mixed with turtle shells and snake skins.
• Babylonian doctors healed the eyes using a mixture of frog bile and sour milk.
• The Sri Lankan army used oil cake (sweetmeat) to serve both as desiccant and antibacterial.
• The traces of tetracycline, for example, have been found in human skeletal remains from ancient Sudanese Nubia dating back to 350–550 CE
• The potent antimalarial drug, qinghaosu (artemisinin) from Artemisia plants has been used by Chinese herbalists for thousands of years as a remedy for many illnesses.

Modern times

1640 – England – John Parkington recommended using a mould for treatment in his book on pharmacology
1870 – England – Sir John Scott Burdon-Sanderson observed that culture fluid covered with mould did not produce bacteria
1871 – England – Joseph Lister experimented with the antibacterial action on human tissue on what he called Penicillium glaucium
1875 – England – John Tyndall explained the antibacterial action of the Penicillium fungus to the Royal Society
1877 – France – Louis Pasteur postulated that bacteria could kill other bacteria (anthrax bacilli)
1897 – France – Ernest Duchesne healed infected guinea pigs from typhoid using a mould (Penicillium glaucium)
1928 – England – Sir Alexander Fleming discovered the enzyme lysozyme and the antibiotic substance penicillin from the fungus Penicillium notatum
1932 – Germany – Gerhard Domagk discovered Sulfonamidochrysoidine (Prontosil )

We are all going to have to look forward to an antibiotic-free environment.

Other articles in this series

1. Antibiotics, Treatments, the good, the bad and the ugly
2. Safe and effective alternative to antibiotics