Synthetic Liquid Penicillin Medium with Glycerine as the Sole Source of Carbon Atom

Abstract

PENICILLIN was first obtained from nutrient broth medium by Sir Alexander Fleming. For systematic investigation of this important antibacterial substance, modified Czapek-Dox medium, with glucose as the sole source of carbon, was used by Clutterbuck, Lovell and Raistrick in 1932. Since then, various modifications of Czapek-Dox medium have been tried either to enhance the growth of the mould or to increase the yield of penicillin. But in all these modifications, either sugar or carbohydrate has been chosen as the principal source of carbon. In our experiments with different synthetic liquid media for producing penicillin, we have observed that glycerine can effectively replace either sugar or carbohydrate, hitherto exclusively employed in the liquid media. This observation has an important bearing on commercial production, as glycerine is much cheaper than either glucose or lactose; if it could be suitably adopted for large-scale manufacture, it would eventually reduce considerably the cost of penicillin.