Penicillium glaucum is a mold

Mold

Molds are fungi that grow in the form of multicellular filaments called hyphae. Molds are not considered to be microbes but microscopic fungi that grow as single cells called yeasts...

 which is used in the making of some types of blue cheese

Blue cheese

Blue cheese is a general classification of cow's milk, sheep's milk, or goat's milk cheeses that have had cultures of the mold Penicillium added so that the final product is spotted or veined throughout with blue, blue-gray or blue-green mold, and carries a distinct smell, either from that or...

, including Bleu de Gex

Bleu de Gex

Bleu de Gex is a creamy, semi-soft blue cheese made from unpasteurized milk in the Jura region of France. During production, Penicillium glaucum mold is introduced and the unwashed curds are loosely packed. It is then aged for at least three weeks...

, Rochebaron and some varieties of Bleu d'Auvergne

Bleu d'Auvergne

Bleu d'Auvergne is a French blue cheese, named for its place of origin in the Auvergne region of south-central France. It is made from cow's milk, and is one of the cheeses granted the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée from the French government....

 and Gorgonzola. (Other blue cheeses, including Bleu de Bresse

Bleu de Bresse

Bleu de Bresse is a blue cheese that was first made in the Bresse area of France following World War II. Made from whole milk, it has a firm, edible coating which is characteristically white in color and has an aroma of mushrooms. Its creamy interior, similar in texture to Brie, contains patches...

, Bleu du Vercors-Sassenage

Bleu du Vercors-Sassenage

Bleu du Vercors-Sassenage is a mild pasteurized natural rind cow's milk blue cheese originally produced by monks in the Rhône-Alpes region of France in the 14th century. Now made in the Dauphiné area, the cheese has been a protected Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée since 1998. As a requirement, the...

, Brebiblu, Cambozola

Cambozola

Cambozola is a cow's milk cheese that is a combination of a French soft-ripened triple cream cheese and Italian Gorgonzola.-History:It was patented and industrially produced for the world market by large German company Champignon in the 1970s. The cheese was invented circa 1900 and is still...

, Cashel Blue, Danish blue, Fourme d'Ambert

Fourme d'Ambert

Fourme d'Ambert is one of France's oldest cheeses, and dates from as far back as Roman times. It is a usually pasteurized cow's milk blue cheese from the Auvergne region of France, with a distinct, narrow cylindrical shape....

, Fourme de Montbrison

Fourme de Montbrison

Fourme de Montbrison is a cow's-milk cheese made in the regions of Rhône-Alpes and Auvergne in southern France. It derives its name from the town of Montbrison in the Loire department....

, Lanark Blue

Lanark Blue

Lanark Blue is a sheep milk cheese produced in Lanarkshire, Scotland.Produced at Ogcastle near to the village of Carnwath by Humphrey Errington since 1985, it is a rich blue-veined artisan cheese...

, Roquefort, Shropshire Blue and Stilton use Penicillium roqueforti

Penicillium roqueforti

Penicillium roqueforti is a common saprotrophic fungus from the family Trichocomaceae. Widespread in nature, it can be isolated from soil, decaying organic matter, and plants. The major industrial use of this fungus is the production of blue cheeses, flavouring agents, antifungals, polysaccharides,...

.)

In 1874, Sir William Roberts

William Roberts (physician)

Sir William Roberts FRS was a physician in Manchester, England.Roberts was born on 18 March 1830 at Bodedern on the Isle of Anglesey the son David and Sarah Roberts, he was educated at Mill Hill School and at University College London. He graduated with a BA at London University in 1851 and became...

, a physician from Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 noted that cultures of the mold did not display bacterial contamination. Louis Pasteur

Louis Pasteur

Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist born in Dole. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases. His discoveries reduced mortality from puerperal fever, and he created the first vaccine for rabies and anthrax. His experiments...

 would build on this discovery, noting that Bacillus anthracis

Bacillus anthracis

Bacillus anthracis is the pathogen of the Anthrax acute disease. It is a Gram-positive, spore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium, with a width of 1-1.2µm and a length of 3-5µm. It can be grown in an ordinary nutrient medium under aerobic or anaerobic conditions.It is one of few bacteria known to...

would not grow in the presence of the related mold, Penicillium notatum. Its antibiotic powers were independently discovered and tested on animals by French physician, Ernest Duchesne

Ernest Duchesne

Ernest Duchesne was a French physician who noted that certain moulds kill bacteria. He made this discovery 32 years before Alexander Fleming discovered the antibiotic properties of penicillin, a substance derived from those moulds, but his research went unnoticed.-Life and work:Duchesne...

, but his thesis in 1897 was ignored.

Penicillium glaucum feeds on only one optical isomer of tartaric acid

Tartaric acid

Tartaric acid is a white crystalline diprotic organic acid. It occurs naturally in many plants, particularly grapes, bananas, and tamarinds; is commonly combined with baking soda to function as a leavening agent in recipes, and is one of the main acids found in wine. It is added to other foods to...

, which makes it extremely useful in advanced higher chemistry projects on chirality

Chirality (chemistry)

A chiral molecule is a type of molecule that lacks an internal plane of symmetry and thus has a non-superimposable mirror image. The feature that is most often the cause of chirality in molecules is the presence of an asymmetric carbon atom....

.

See also

• Discoveries of anti-bacterial effects of penicillium moulds before Fleming