Question

Laboratory assistant Mary Hunt found a cantaloupe covered with the Fungus Penicillium chrysogenum, which yielded ______ the amount of penicillin as the species that Dr Fleming had found​

Answer 1

Answer:

1,000 times

Explanation:

In another flash of serendipity, Mary Hunt, a laboratory assistant at the US Northern Regional Research Laboratory, came across a cantaloupe melon with a golden mould. This mould turned out to be P. chrysogenum, and yielded 1,000 times more penicillin than Alexander Fleming’s P. notatum.

In 1949, Florey noted “had it not been for [the US drug companies’] efforts there would certainly not have been sufficient penicillin by D-Day in Normandy in 1944 to treat all severe casualties, both British and American”.