help: Penicillium and ripened cheeses
robison at lipid.harvard.edu
Tue Jan 23 08:25:56 EST 1996
Andy Weirich (weirich at bnr.ca) wrote:
: Several blue cheeses (Roquefort, Stilton, Gorgonzola) develop their
: characteristic blue mold as a consequence of being innoculated with
: Penicillium Glauca mold during ripening. Other cheeses (Camembert, Brie)
: have surfaces treated with a different Penicillium spore.
: Encyclopedia Brittanica mentions Penicillium Mutata as the penicillium
: strain responsible for the well-known antibiotic, but also asserts that
: many (most?) penicillium strains will produce antibiotic substances with
: varying effects.
: Does anyone know of a reference which investigates what, if any,
: antibiotic effect is produced by the cheese-ripening penicillium
I don't know any cites -- but I don't suggest you get a
prescription for Roquefort during your next infection.
Wild strains of Penicillium produce very low levels of
antibiotic -- fine for wiping out their bacterial neighbors
(the reason they have it & Fleming noticed them), but no
good for dosing a human body. There was an enormous effort
during WWII to find strains which produced large quantities
of antibiotic. In fact, the first patient ever treated with
penicillin died -- because the doctors ran out of it
(if memory serves me, in at least one early trial the patients'
urine was extracted to recover the precious stuff).
Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology
Department of Genetics
robison at mito.harvard.edu
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