JEDDAH, 8 October 2003 — The discovery of penicillin was a major event in the history of medicine and never fails to fascinate. The story goes like this: “Alexander Fleming of St. Mary’ s Hospital in London was determined to find a way of killing germs. In 1928 he was studying staphylococci (bacteria that infect open wounds and injuries). By chance, he noticed that on a dish in which he had been growing germs, near some fungal mold, the germs were less common. He grew more of the mold, which was later developed into the antibiotic we know as penicillin: He discovered the mold was effective against bacteria that caused many diseases, for example anthrax, meningitis and diphtheria. He published his discoveries, but he did not have the resources to experiment more widely. Howard Florey, Ernst Chain and Norman Heatley expanded on Fleming’s work in 1938 at Oxford University. They succeeded in producing small amounts of penicillin and demonstrating its effectiveness against a number of bacterial diseases.”
Later research adds more to the tale of the “wonder drug”. Perhaps few of us know that during Word War II, another secret story of penicillin was unfolding. The Delft School of the Netherlands is well known for its contributions to the development of general microbiology. Some of the scientists from Delft were employed by the Netherlands’s yeast and spirit factory (NG&SF), one of the oldest fermentation companies of the world. When the Germans occupied the Netherlands, an NG&SF team secretly isolated, characterized and produced penicillin — under the code name “Bacinol”. This project was completely independent of American and British efforts to produce penicillin and was conducted under more challenging circumstances, without access to scientific literature.
Within a short time, the German occupation produced stringent conditions. To make matters worse, the weather was unusually cold, and during the winter of 1944-45 more than 16,000 civilians died. Remarkably, during the last 16 months of the war, the secret research to produce penicillin was conducted in Delft. After the German occupation, NG&SF was allowed to function without German management. Yeast production was cut and the company found new products to fill its fermenters. Because Delft was not bombed, the NG&SF production site remained intact. Because of their “special skills” and “essential” status, many NG&SF employees were protected.
Concurrent with these developments in Holland, Fleming had abandoned his research which had been moved to America. Florey, Chain and Heatley resumed their research and by August 1942, several newspaper articles focused on penicillin and “miracle cures”. It is not entirely clear how the news of penicillin came to Delft in 1943. However, the news got through and F.G. Waller, the director of research and production, was convinced that NG&SF should try to make this new product. He organized a small group of scientists to conduct penicillin research including A.P. Struyk, a Ph.D. in Microbial Biochemistry. Struyk led the research team and wrote three of the reports in the company archives. Although forced to work in secret, the team had one major advantage: accessibility to one of the best fungal culture collections in the world.
When screening for antibacterial activity, the group modified the original method of plating and inoculating bacteria. Using a modified approach, clear lysis — the rupturing of bacterial cells as described by Fleming — was seen. This was coded P-6. Struyk named the antibacterial substance “Bacinol” which was both scientifically and politically prudent. Without an authentic standard, it was not possible to tell if Bacinol were really penicillin. The code name also kept the Germans unaware of the nature of the research. By June 1944, the researchers had produced an extract estimated to be 50 percent Bacinol.
Convinced that they were on the right track, the team began to consider how to increase Bacinol production.
Despite deteriorating conditions in the Netherlands during the winter of 1944-1945, the team in Delft continued to make progress. When the war in Europe ended, the liberation was made even sweeter for the members of the Delft team when they were able to verify that “Bacinol” was indeed penicillin.
Little has been written about this extraordinary Dutch achievement until recent research by Marlene Burns. Her work and that of her colleagues is based on interviews with surviving participants, archival materials, and other published records. Her remarkable research on the discovery of Dutch penicillin was first published in 2002. One can’t stop wondering why the story has been unknown for so many years.
“One reason may be the inherent reserve of the Dutch people,” Burns said. “The group at NG&SF did not discover penicillin but identified a production strain, perfected a purification protocol and built and refined submerged fermenter tanks — all noteworthy achievements reflecting exceptional technical skill.”
Perhaps another reason was the harsh reality of life in postwar Europe. The management of NG&SF felt no need to draw attention to themselves in those harsh times. It was more than sufficient reward to have saved millions of lives and to have helped the Dutch economy.
