1. Why Penicillin Matters:

• Penicillin was the first antibiotic that many people started using.
• It was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928.
• In the 1940s, scientists began making penicillin in the lab, which changed medicine forever.

2. How Penicillin is Made:

• Making penicillin in a lab involves 7 important steps.
• One key step is turning a certain type of compound called a β-lactam ring into an α-amino acid.

3. How Efficient is It?:

• In the early days, labs often only produced less than 1% of the penicillin they aimed to make.
• Today, with better methods, they can create more than 30% of the target penicillin.

4. Uses of Penicillin:

• It’s important to know about the structure of molecules and how they work together.
• Because of penicillin, scientists have found over 100,000 related types of penicillin that help fight infections.