Microbiological Aspects of Penicillin: III. Production of Penicillin in Surface Cultures of Penicillium notatum

Synthesis and characterization of microbial mediated cadmium oxide nanoparticles

Microbial mediated synthesis of metallic nanoparticles constitutes as effective and promising approach for the development of antibacterial materials in the field of bioengineering and biomedicine. We prepared Cadmium oxide nanoaprticles (CdO NPs) utilizing Penicillium oxalicum, and cadmium acetate solution via coprecipitate method. The elemental composition and morphology of these synthesized CdO NPs were examined through X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Furthermore, we evaluated the bactericidal potential of prepared CdO NPs using Escherichia coli (E.coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus), Bacillus cereus (B.cereus), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa). Dimethyl sulfoxide was used as negative control while erythromycin was used as positive control. The XRD spectrum revealed cubic crystalline nanoparticles with 22.94 nm size and UV showed absorbance peak at 297 nm with 2.5 eV band gap energy. FTIR depicted O─H and carboxylic groups along with CdO stretching vibration. EDS showed the presence of organic compounds on Cd and O over NPs surface. SEM results revealed the spherical shape of the CdO NPs. The synthesized NPs exhibited highly potent bactericidal activity against selected strains and demonstrated less optical density of 0.086 after 24 hr. Owing to the significant antibacterial activity of CdO NPs, the broad application prospects of these nanoparticles CdO NPs in extensive biomedical applications is indicated.

C.G. Paine and the earliest surviving clinical records of penicillin therapy

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Storage of conidia of Penicillium chrysogenum in liquid nitrogen

Conidiated slope cultures of derivative of Penicillium chrysogenum Wis 54-1255 were stored at -196 or +4 C for a period of 3.5 years. After this time, the viability fell to 68% in the former case and to 4% in the latter. At the end of the experiment, 65 single conidial isolates from each series were tested for penicillin yield. Among those from conidia stored at -196 C, the spread of penicillin yields did not differ markedly from that of 65 single conidial isolates made as controls prior to storage. However, 18% of those from conidia stored at +4 C formed a subpopulation with substantially lower penicillin titers than those of control isolates. Storage at -196 C may reduce or prevent a possible source of penicillin yield decay, namely, the selection of spontaneous mutants of low titer present in small numbers in the original culture and selected, as viability decreased, by virtue of their increased longevity relative to that of the parental culture.