Word: penicillins
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Center proudly showed some brown crystals which they had synthesized and proved to be one of many varieties of penicillin: "penicillin...
Almost as soon as penicillin was isolated, chemists tried to make it artificially. The job was tough, for the penicillin molecule is unstable and exceedingly complex. Frantic wartime efforts by the British and OSRD (Office of Scientific Research and Development) did much of the pioneer work; the Cornell group finished...
...general method, as in most syntheses, was to break down natural penicillin-G into simpler compounds which could be made artificially, then try to make these combine into penicillin. Dr. du Vigneaud and his associates started (as others had before them) with two decomposition products-dextro-penicilla-mine hydrochloride and 2-benzyl-4-meth-oxymethylene-5(4)-oxazolone. Over & over again they made them combine under different conditions...
...some cases the product was a rather feeble germ-killer. But this did not prove that it contained real penicillin, for many structurally unrelated chemicals kill germs. So the biochemists put their best synthetic germ-killer through a long series of grueling tests to compare it with real penicillin...
Radioactive Tracer. The most spectacular test used radioactivity. A little of the unknown synthetic which the chemists hoped was penicillin was made up with radioactive sulphur built into its molecule. Mixed with natural penicillin, it was put through recrystallizations and chemical transformations...