The other four are never found in cheese, including
Yes, it is a Penicillium mold that produces the antibiotic penicillin…but not the same one. The antibiotic is made from Penicillium chrysogenum; the cheeses are made with Penicillium roqueforti, Penicillium camemberti, and Penicillium glaucum.
Alexander Fleming famously discovered the first antibiotic, penicillin, in 1928 while working at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, which is now part of Imperial College London. The antibiotic was produced by a mould in the genus Penicillium that accidentally started growing in a Petri dish.
In 1928 Dr Alexander Fleming returned from a holiday to find mould growing on a Petri dish of Staphylococcus bacteria. He noticed the mould seemed to be preventing the bacteria around it from growing. He soon identified that the mould produced a self-defence chemical that could kill bacteria.
The simple answer is yes. The Penicillium species used in the production of Brie-type and blue cheeses is distinctly different from the species used to produce the antibiotic penicillin. There are many different species of Penicillium mould.
"Many types of cheese are made using moulds from the Penicillium group, including surface-ripened cheeses such as brie and camembert as well as blue vein cheeses. The species of Penicillium that are used to make cheese do not produce the antibiotic penicillin.
According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, the Penicillium cultures that create blue cheese do not produce penicillin. Therefore, it is generally safe for people with penicillin allergies to eat blue cheese, as long as the cheese has not spoiled.
Penicillin discovered
Often described as a careless lab technician, Fleming returned from a two-week vacation to find that a mold had developed on an accidentally contaminated staphylococcus culture plate. Upon examination of the mold, he noticed that the culture prevented the growth of staphylococci.
Before its introduction there was no effective treatment for infections such as pneumonia, gonorrhea or rheumatic fever. Hospitals were full of people with blood poisoning contracted from a cut or a scratch, and doctors could do little for them but wait and hope.
Some of the fungi most frequently isolated from fermented and cured meat products such as Penicillium chrysogenum and Penicillium nalgiovense are known penicillin producers; the latter has been shown to be able to produce penicillin when growing on the surface of meat products and secrete it to the medium.
Isolation of Penicillin at Oxford University
However, the strain had been saved at Oxford. In 1939, Howard Florey assembled a team, including a fungal expert, Norman Heatley, who worked on growing Penicillium spp. in large amounts, and Chain, who successfully purified penicillin from an extract from the mold.
Penicillium mold naturally produces the antibiotic penicillin.
There is no known relationship between allergy to the mold Penicillin and allergy to the antibiotic penicillin, which is made from the mold. Consult your child's physician for more information.
In addition, invisible bacteria that can also make you sick may be tagging along with the mold [source: Nelson]. So, while your high school science teacher was right about penicillin being made from mold, it is not a good idea to try to get this bacteria-fighting agent from moldy bread.
Avoid all cheeses but particularly blue cheese and other cheeses that contain visible mold. Additionally, avoid all fermented dairy products like sour cream, buttermilk and sour milk.
Mold generally can't penetrate far into hard and semisoft cheeses, such as cheddar, colby, Parmesan and Swiss. So you can cut away the moldy part and eat the rest of the cheese. Cut off at least 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) around and below the moldy spot.
For over two thousand years, bloodletting was a standard treatment for almost any ailment, including infectious diseases. In an attempt to alleviate symptoms, bloodletting practitioners used various instruments to withdraw blood from patients, including syringes, lancets, and even leeches.
Arsenicals and sulphonamides, drugs made by chemical tinkering with synthetic dyes, as well as a number of disinfectants made with metal ions toxic to bacteria, such as mercury or copper, were in use well before the introduction of penicillin.
Treatments over the centuries have also included bloodletting, as well as drugs derived from herbs with emetic, purgative, diaphoretic, or narcotic properties.
Almost from the beginning, doctors noted that in some cases, penicillin was not useful against certain strains of Staphylococcus aureus (bacteria that causes skin infections). Since then, this problem of resistance has grown worse, involving other bacteria and antibiotics.
Hypersensitivity reactions are the major problem in the use of penicillins.
Today penicillin is synthesized in a lab using penicillium mold, which naturally produces penicillin. The mold is grown with sugars and other ingredients through deep-tank fermentation until the penicillin is able to be separated from the mold.
The Penicillium molds used in cheese making do not generate penicillin, so they pose no problem for anyone who is allergic to the drug.
Penicillin residues in poultry products (such as eggs) can result in extreme anaphylactic reactions while consumption of higher concentrations of sulphonamide residues bring about skin allergies [80].
Also reported are cases of allergic reactions to amoxicillin and bacampicillin transferred through kissing, but this kind of transferring is more frequent to affect in case of personal history of food allergy.