How to make penicillin

[greenprogrammin]

Just to follow up on the topic.

If you did have a large culture I would recommend a good yeast culture on the side with a still.

 

The alcohol from the yeast culture and still would be a good antiseptic.

 

Alcohol is also a great solvent. I'm not sure of the soluility of the penicillin but you will probably need to learn to seperate the various drugs out of the stock solution.

 

An acid base extraction would be good to precipitate out some stuff. But, others you may need to perform some chromatography.

 

I think the simpleist chromatography would be using TLC (Thin Layer Chromatography).

Chromatography can be as simple as a coffee filter and alcohol to complex as expanded bed column chromatograph.

 

TLC chromatography on thicker stationary phase would be best for preparatory chromatography.

 

If there is a chaotic event, people would have to group together and rebuild and reorganize as soon as possible.

 

I think the first step would be to improve general hygiene as mentioned with the soap idea (BTW... fat + ash = soap).

 

Next, I would recommend the yeast culture and distillation systems. Alcohol is invaluable and will be needed for many other labs.

 

Since you have the still you will need purified water for IV solution.

 

You should also make your IV solution isotonic to blood...

 

Therefore you will need to make some purified salts. Nothing some strong acids and bases couldn't produce.

 

You will probably need someone that works glass real good. You'll need tempered glass or if possible pyrex.

 

If you have plenty of metals to refine you will be able to put a metal worker to work.

 

It's a lot about the resources you have and the knowledge you have to put it to use.

 

You can purify/clean the air and a chamber for sterile work with low tech methods (spark ionizer, volatile oils, bleach, alcohol, etc...). I don't know how easily a hepa filter system is to produce...

 

I think this thread is very important. I don't think anyone should give up on such a question.

 

The possibility is real.

 

Good Luck!

[GALAXYM13]

I just stumbled across this while looking for info on how to make antibiotics. I find it funny that you all are concerned with purifying the penicillin bedew use. I must remind you all that if it were a situation where you'd be using it in the first place, you wouldn't realyycare about it's quality. You'd just be glad to have something that MIGHT work. Another option besides drinking it, where your stomach acid would likely neutralize it before absorption, would be to create an injectable form. This would be MUCH more efficient.

 

On another note, penicillin is cheap and readily available. Just stock up. Also, you can purchase it in veterinary amounts and pills without a prescription.

 

Additionally, many plants and herbs are antimocrobial and bacteriostatic, which will stop bacterial growth, if not kill it completely. That is better than nothing, although bactericidal would be ideal. As far as creating other antibiotics, what about other things like antifungals and antiparasitics? Equally important are IV fluids, if you have the means to administer them aseptically into a vein. These fluids are easy enough to make, with sugar and salt and lactose, for example, but if not aseptic, you will be causing more harm than good. And you will need sterile tubing and needles as well.

 

I am a nurse, and I can say that these items are absolutely necessary. I would say to stock up on these things, as well as sterile needles and syringes for injection, as long as we are talking about being in a survival situation. I have gotten into herbal therapies myself, which will do in a pinch for many many ailments.

[orion357]

All of the questions in this comment thread are towards creating an antibiotic in an extreme emergency situation. Yet all of the answers involve activities that require refrigeration and pressure heating: both of which require electricity. If the power is on then the drug store is probably open. Unless you're on a solar powered generator. It also involves having a lot of complicated ingredients that you won't have on hand unless you can use common things that contain them.

 

So question 1: How long does drug store penicillin remain viable against bacterial infections?

 

and question 2: How effective would a primitive cocktail of milk, crushed vitamins, sugar, cornstarch, epsom salts, beef jerky and Gatorade be as a media?

 

Again - it's an extreme survival question only.

[UniversalTraveler]

You could instead try to find out how the pharmacutical companies harvest it then attempt to immitate their method.

[survsapper]

All of the questions in this comment thread are towards creating an antibiotic in an extreme emergency situation. Yet all of the answers involve activities that require refrigeration and pressure heating: both of which require electricity. If the power is on then the drug store is probably open. Unless you're on a solar powered generator. It also involves having a lot of complicated ingredients that you won't have on hand unless you can use common things that contain them.

 

So question 1: How long does drug store penicillin remain viable against bacterial infections?

 

and question 2: How effective would a primitive cocktail of milk, crushed vitamins, sugar, cornstarch, epsom salts, beef jerky and Gatorade be as a media?

 

Again - it's an extreme survival question only.

 

Actually, you could use a stirling cooler, not incredibly advanced technology, could easily make solar icemakers & even some other earlier forms of refrigeration that do not require electricity, depends on the temperatures required of course.

 

Electricity is all pervasive now & many have forgotten the technologies that did not require it.

 

Also 1940's technology was not that advanced, it could be reproduced depending on how far we regress, how quickly it happens, how much knowledge is preserved beforehand & what particular event causes the collapse of civilization.

 

As for knowledge & skills, it matters not how or where you obtain them but that you acquire the right knowledge & techniques.

 

Lets also face the fact that certain areas will survive & any intact equipment can be salvaged from other areas, while it lasts a lot could be accomplished provided there are enough survivors to do the required tasks.

 

It is a pity that we did not develop natural medicine to the same level as synthetics, we may have been in a better situation now if we had, however salvaging what we can will at least offer options.

 

Thanks people, I look forward to reading more.

Edited March 20, 2012 by survsapper

[Jack Hummingbird]

Can somebody tell me how to grow from houshold aparatus penicillin?

 

Grey green mold on wheat bread. Take bread and tear it up, place in plastic bag and keep warm. Between 75-85 degrees. Mold will form rapidly.

Take moldy bread and place in a sterile jar with sterile water (kill two birds with one stone there by boiling the water in the jar and letting it cool sealed.

Let the jar with water and moldy bread sit for three days at about 85-95 degrees. You will have a thickbrown liquid. Filter this through a cheescloth or coffee filter and you will have a nasty bitter penicillin tea. Do not use unless you absolutely have to as any infections may well, perhaps WILL, build up a resistance to it quickly.

To Test you can take a scraping of an infected would and see bacterium with a lens from binoculars if you do not have a pocket microscope. When you have identified bacterium introduce some penicillin and see if it kills off the bacteria. Also may wish to test it on some healthy cells just to feel more secure by capturing a rodent/squirrel, etc and putting it on their wound and see it you did it wrong when they die a horrible screaming death (not really likely, but it drives the point of why you would want to test it first.

 

There are more complex methods involving use of Lactose Monohydrate, cornstarch, sodium nitrate, magnesium sulfate, potassium phosphate mono, glucose monohydrate, zinc sulfate, manganese sulfate. Then add enough cold tap water to make one liter. Use hydrochloric acid to adjust the pH to between 5.0 and 5.5. But if you are that well equipped you should have an SAS survival guide on hand anyway.

 

But hey people. There are other ways. In WW2 the Russians used Garlic as an oral and topical antibiotic to great effect. And I personally have used it to knock out an infected, impacted, wisdom tooth. And that some serious infection. Just eat it raw, tough it out and eat three whole cloves three times a day.

And you can also make a Topical paste with raw crushed garlic and honey (honey also has antibiotic properties.)

If you live in the Pacific Northwest there is a mushroom that often grows around conifers. Small White (when young) that exude a bright red sap. That red sap is an antibiotic and an anticoagulant.

 

And then there is Echinacea

Echinacea has been used for hundreds of years to strengthen the immune system and fight a variety of infections. Traditionally, echinacea was used to treat open wounds, diptheria, cellulitis, blood poisoning, syphilitic lesions and other bacterial-related diseases. Although it's mostly used today for fighting colds and flu, this potent herb possesses the ability to destroy the most virulent bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus which causes deadly MRSA.

 

 

[John Cuthber]

While it is true that many grey/green moulds are penicillium species it is not true that most of them produce penicillin.

 

Many fungi produce a whole array of toxic chemicals- some quire remarkably so,.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aflatoxin

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochratoxin_A

Is produced by a mould that looks pretty much like bread mould.

http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/1/1/3/figure?id=toxins-01-00003-f002

 

So brewing up bread mould tea might get you penicillin, or it might get you Octhratoxin.

There's no easy way to know which.