Short video spoiler history: The beginning of modern warfare

Chapter 100 Penicillin

[I recently watched a foreign TV series called "Benevolent Doctors", which mentioned the traditional method of making penicillin. Let's take a look at what happened.]

[First, cook a pot of beef soup. You can put some tendons in it while cooking. When it cools down, it will become aspic. Use more ceramic bowls to hold some of this aspic.]

[Then use a wooden stick sterilized with medium milk to scrape the mucous membrane on your mouth and place the scraping on the aspic. This is the staphylococcus that can be used as a reference for the sterilization target.]

[Then you can collect mold everywhere, such as moldy food and mold on fruits and vegetables, as long as it is mold]

[Put these mold species on the aspic separately. After a period of time, once you find that the staphylococci around the mold obviously avoid the mold, then this mold is effective in killing bacteria. Put this mold in a ceramic jar filled with diluted beef broth, seal it and let it multiply. This is penicillin.]

[After filtering the culture medium, add rapeseed oil and shake it to dissolve the fat-soluble substances. At this time, the solution will be divided into three layers. The bottom layer is water. Since penicillin is water-soluble, the water under the oil dissolves penicillin.]

[Drain the water from the bottom, add the sterilized activated carbon container and stir, wash with distilled water, then inject acidic water (acetic acid), and finally inject alkaline water (seaweed boiled juice)]

Ming, Jinling City.

Officials from the Ministry of Science, Imperial Medical Service and other institutions had no time to talk and were copying down documents frantically. After all, they had seen the magic of allicin.

In the past few months, there have been many cases of wound inflammation and pus oozing out of the whole body, high fever that would not go away, and people who had already fallen into a coma and lost consciousness. Allicin has cured many such cases.

As they copied, many people frowned. The steps here are indeed much more complicated than allicin, and many steps are vague. For example, do different food molds have different effects? How long should the cultured Penicillium be sealed and cultured? How much rapeseed oil should be added? And so on.

The following part also involves a method for purifying a solution of acid-base ratio of eight. It also says that if this method can only be used for external application or injection, then ether needs to be used for purification. Ether is obtained by mixing sulfuric acid and alcohol.

And most importantly, this folk remedy was learned from a TV drama.

"The TV series should be similar to today's shadow play, right?"

"almost."

"Is this reliable?" Zhu Biao was a little helpless. The traditional method of making penicillin learned from shadow puppetry made him feel like the world was in chaos.

Everyone was skeptical when they heard this, but they just kept in mind that since they were already here, they wrote it down.

Many people were confused because there were many professional terms involved and no annotations, so they could not help scratching their heads.

It was at this moment that everyone realized that what Tianmu said when he mentioned allicin was correct. The preparation of penicillin is extremely difficult. Without the chemical foundation, it is really difficult to extract usable penicillin injection.

Even doctors in later generations may not be able to explain it clearly, because many of their medicines are no longer purely natural. Once the medical formula is kept secret, even doctors may only know the efficacy.

Zhu Biao thought of the subdivision and division of disciplines in universities in later generations. There is no doubt that the various medical disciplines are mysterious areas that Tianmu has never mentioned.

Everyone put their thoughts aside and continued watching.

[Emmm, this method is correct in the general direction, but it is actually not that easy]

[First of all, my country spent several years in the last century testing more than 30 strains of bacteria, 13 of which produced antibiotics, and only 4 of which were truly valuable. For example, the strain used by the United States in 1942 was found on Hami melon. The fact that they encountered an effective strain at once showed that they were extremely lucky.]

[Secondly, different culture media have different effects on the efficiency of producing penicillin. Corn syrup-based culture media is commonly used internationally, and some say beef broth culture media, rice soup, taro soup mixed culture media, etc.]

[Then there is the issue of culture temperature. Penicillin needs to be cultured at a constant temperature of 24 degrees for about 7 days. Without a constant temperature, it can only be cultured in the summer. Finally, the most important thing is that the penicillin content of this solution cannot be determined, and it is impossible to determine whether there are other harmful substances or side effects.]

[Not to mention the large-scale cultivation and purification issues, the extraction method in the TV series is not pure enough, so if you want to produce an effect, you must inject a large amount. How to inject it when you travel back to ancient times is also a big problem.]

[This kind of penicillin produced by this folk method is generally difficult to use. If you really want to use it, you should first find some mice or something to test the medicine, otherwise it would be a waste of time.]

Ming, Jinling City.

"I knew it." Many people's premonitions were confirmed, and for a moment they didn't know whether to be happy or sad.

It's sad, after all, Tianmu pointed out a lot of details from the bacterial strain to the culture medium, temperature, etc. If it weren't for these evaluations, it might have taken several years just to make the detours in the experiment.

And the cost is far more than just time. These medicines have to be tried to see if they are useful. If you are careless, someone may get hurt.

To say I'm happy is a bit of a feeling of trying to find joy in misery, but overall I should be happier, after all, the problem is there, and these comments from the people behind the scenes have pointed out the way, allowing penicillin research to avoid many detours.

"Yes, bacteria are effective against mice and other things. Why didn't we think of using them for research before?" The director of the Imperial Medical Bureau knocked his head and kept Tianmu's suggestion in mind.

In the Science Department, Sun Chuanshi, Du Ping and others were in a relatively relaxed mood at the moment. As for matters involving medical aspects, they had no right to interfere, so no matter how difficult the matter was, it would not be their turn to lose their hair.

Before, I was busy experimenting day and night with various problems. Now, standing in the audience and watching others do research and being tortured by problems, I have some different experiences.

However, they do hope that someone in the Imperial Medical Bureau or among the public can be more reliable and can figure out a method for large-scale cultivation and purification of penicillin as soon as possible. After all, their lives and property and those of their families may have to rely on penicillin to save their lives one day in the future.

"The Ministry of Industry will send a batch of colored glass products to the Imperial Hospital for experimental use tomorrow." Zhu Yuanzhang ordered. Although he wanted to learn all the knowledge mentioned by Tianmu, it was obvious that everyone had limited time, so except for important research, such as energy research, he would ask for details in person, and other times he basically handed it over to Zhu Biao to coordinate and coordinate. However, penicillin has a wide impact. If it can be developed, it can save countless Ming soldiers, so he will pay special attention to the research of penicillin.

Zhu Yuanzhang was somewhat helpless. He was actually not very confident in his subordinates and wanted to keep everything under his control, but he also understood that his time and energy were limited, so he could only focus on the big things and let the small things go.

[In reality, the road to penicillin production is actually very tortuous. We all know that the British Fleming discovered penicillin in 1921, but penicillin was not used in humans until 1941.]

[The story begins in 1938. In that year, a genius appeared at Oxford University. His name was Florey. His team was studying what could kill bacteria. When he was looking up information, he accidentally found Fleming's paper.]

[The extraction method at that time was too low in purity and too small in quantity. It took a month just to wait for the broth to mold. The penicillin extracted from more than 200 kilograms of broth was not enough to feed a mouse. The most difficult part was purification.]

[Flory discovered that penicillin could be dissolved in ether (made from alcohol and sulfuric acid). He poured the ether into the broth, shook it madly, and finally evaporated the ether until nothing was left.]

[It doesn’t make sense. After a few days of brainstorming, a handsome guy in the team named Hitley invented the reverse purification method]

[He put the ethanol solution and purified water together and shook it, then adjusted the pH, let the penicillin return to the water, boiled the water at low pressure and evaporated it, and finally they finally got a little brown powder]

[On May 1940, 5, the historic moment finally arrived. Florey's team captured eight mice and injected them with a lethal dose of streptococcus]

[This bacteria can kill mice in one day, so they injected penicillin into four of the mice and not the other four. The next day, all the mice that were not injected with penicillin died, while the mice that were injected with penicillin were alive and kicking.]

【.】

[Soon it was 1941, and they selected a 43-year-old patient named Alexander from the hospital. He had been pierced on the face by a rose thorn in his own garden. Unexpectedly, the wound became infected all over his body, his left eyeball was removed, and his whole body was swollen and oozing pus.]

[It looked like the end was near, but Florey instructed the doctor to inject Alexander with 200 mg of penicillin, and a miracle happened. 24 hours later, Alexander’s temperature returned to normal, his wound stopped oozing pus, and he was even able to eat.]

[He got better day by day over the next five days and was about to be discharged from the hospital. However, due to the penicillin running out and the incomplete treatment, he got infected again and eventually died.]

[A few months later, they produced some penicillin, and the two patients with severe infections were cured and discharged from the hospital.]

Tang Dynasty, Chang'an City.

Li Shimin was fascinated by the scene. Although he did not know what many of the solutions referred to by professional terms were, from an observer's perspective he could see that purification was indeed quite difficult at that time.

Not only is the extraction difficult, the production process is also difficult. It is difficult to mass produce by one person's own strength, so the team mentioned in the sky curtain also found businessmen to visit.

Unexpectedly, these people refused
"Short-sighted!" Li Shimin commented. At that time, when faced with infection, inflammation and pus discharge, penicillin was a life-saving drug, but these people refused to produce it because of the large initial investment.
"It can cure patients with such serious illnesses. It deserves to be called a miracle drug!" Li Shimin was full of praise. From the discovery of bacteria to the research on methods to kill bacteria and then to production and application, it took almost a hundred years. This miracle drug is the result of scientific research.

Doctors in Chang'an City have a new understanding of injuries, infections and pus discharge. If the situation is not particularly serious, a few patches of allicin can basically cure the disease and prevent the condition from getting worse.

As a result, the price of garlic in Chang'an City has skyrocketed but the supply is still in short supply.

For example, allicin is effective for dysentery and other diseases. Traveling doctors and monks in temples in Chang'an City are also loved by the people because of the therapeutic effects of allicin. Of course, both parties know that the credit goes to the heaven and future generations.

Cheng Yaojin felt his scalp tingling when he heard Tianmu's description of his illness. He was not afraid of dying on the battlefield, but he was afraid of dying in this way, tortured by illness and becoming unrecognizable.

"Pity!"

"Yes, this is the first time humans have tried penicillin, and it turned out to be such a blunder because of insufficient dosage!"

"That means purification is really difficult." Everyone chatted for a while. Tianmu mentioned that Flory was the first person to purify penicillin and apply it to humans. He must be no ordinary person. Even he couldn't handle the purification.

This shows the difficulty of purification.

Military generals like Cheng Yaojin still admired these scholars of later generations. They were the real backbone of humanity. Their research and achievements had far-reaching impacts and benefited generations to come.

"Was the extraction method that Tianmu mentioned a traditional method?" someone asked doubtfully, but did not expect anyone to be able to answer. Everyone present was hearing these things for the first time, so naturally they could not offer any useful insights.

"What is this ethanol solution?" Everyone has given up thinking. They know that this chemical solution is different from other inventions. They cannot guess its true composition based on its name. They can only see if it is mentioned in the comments section.

Li Shimin looked at Duan Lun. Without a microscope, the bacteria and viruses that Tianmu was talking about could not be seen at all. Moreover, this thing was a basic tool for studying bacteria and viruses. It was really too important.

"I will definitely live up to your expectations." Duan Lun said confidently with his hands raised. After so long of continuous firing, he could clearly feel that he would soon be able to fire out lenses that met the requirements.

《Is there any requirement for ethanol concentration in the reverse purification method? 》

《70%-75% medical alcohol》

At this time, as the comment area was closed, the sky curtain gradually dimmed. Everyone knew that they would have to wait more than a month before the sky curtain lit up again.

(End of this chapter)