Antibacterial action of Penicillium (Picado)
Acción antibacteriana de los Penicillium (Picado)
- Date
- 1927 · confidence low
- Place
- San José, Costa Rica
- Credited to
- Clodomiro Picado Twight
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
The Costa Rican scientist observed that Penicillium cultures inhibited staphylococcal growth and reported it to the Paris Société de Biologie in 1927. He is cited as a precursor, without isolating the agent, of Fleming's penicillin (1928).
He neither isolated the substance nor tested it clinically; his priority is a historiographical claim and the dates (some sources give 1915-1923) are not well documented.
What it led to
- Belated recognition of a Latin American precursor of penicillin
- Studies of fungi and snakes at the Clodomiro Picado Institute