The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 173

i Special Advertising Supplement Sunday, May 16, 1976 AfrOO BeaMD JuUf Ml 19 r-; ipamj LAMP USED BY Antoine Lavosier, "father of modern chemistry." (From Eleutherian Mills Hagley Foundation, Wilmington, Del.) Birth of antibiotics edmch ac the, ytzmto(m on the wemiofjifie, 100th amwmwry. die Ji wwtfi and dmwfmemt of me crwriical a Juwe hem die afepmuomaz mam on oiw Uid(Jmudd awmwihm oft ACS. cQurL Lett mdie4 art luOnjecm oh oxuemmmtm (5 'Mem xdf the ((xmdTwi. 08805 j. Jmiher ST It wddeAwowrwm I Si SI St I SI 1 (J ll and OA (dme mals.

England needed large quantities of the antibiotic for those wounded in the war effort but lacked the resources to develop a full-scale production program. Flory turned to the United States for help. The age of antibiotics began with the discovery of penicillin in 1928 by the English bacteriologist Sir Alexander Fleming. Fleming noticed that a bacterial culture which he had been studying had become contaminated with a mold which he later identified as a strain of the genus penicillium. The mold produced a substance which Fleming christened penicillin that apparently inhibited bacterial growth.

By 1939, a well orchestrated effort by Sir Howard Flory resulted in a penicillin extract containing about 10 pet. of the active substance and successfully fought bacterial infections in laboratory ani- President Continued from Page 2. An informal mixer will be held on-the opening day of the meeting sessions, at the Cascade Holiday Inn. The principal speaker at an ACS Centennial Banquet at the Firestone Country Club on Thursday, May 20, will be Dr. Glenn T.

Sea- With the help of the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research and the U. S. Government, a massive scale-up program was begun. By 1942, 122 million units of purified penicillin had been accumulated and clinical trials were undertaken at Yale University and the Mayo Clinic. (One unit of penicillin equals about 0.006 milligrams of the antibiotic.

A million units is 0.6 grams or about 2-100 of an ounce). THE RESULTS of the clinical tests were so impressive that the Surgeon General of the United States ordered the penicillin production effort stepped up. Flory began work with American chemist Dr. Robert D. Coghill, director of the Northern Regional Research Laboratories of the Department of Agriculture at Peoria.

The idea was to produce penicillin in massive quantities by a fermentation process. Working in cooperation with the government, 20 American companies (including a brewery or two) were licensed to make penicillin and improve upon the USDA deep fermentation process. borg, ACS president. Free transportation to the Firestone Country Club will be provided from the Cascade Inn Holiday Inn. Seven plant tours are scheduled during the three-day meeting sessions and an ACS short course, Organic Coatings will be conducted on May 17-18..