Moldy Mary Found Penicillin Cantaloupe

In 1943, lab assistant Mary Hunt, nicknamed "Moldy Mary," helped discover a much stronger penicillin-producing mold on a cantaloupe from a market in Peoria, Illinois. Alexander Fleming’s original mold had revealed penicillin in 1928, but it did not produce enough of the antibiotic for easy mass production. The Peoria strain, later known as NRRL 1951, produced far more penicillin and became central to wartime production.

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