Pyocyanase

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Pyocyanase was the first antibiotic used in hospitals. It was developed in the 1890s by Rudolph Emmerich and Oscar Löw, two German doctors. They showed that a germ from infected wounds could also kill other bacteria. They isolated a bacterium called Bacillus pyocyaneus (now known as Pseudomonas aeruginosa) that makes a blue-green pigment called pyocyanin. They found that extracts from this organism could destroy several harmful bacteria, including those that cause cholera, typhoid, diphtheria, and anthrax. Based on this, they created a medicine called pyocyanase. However, its effects varied from patient to patient, and the pigment pyocyanin made it very toxic to people. Because of these problems, pyocyanase was abandoned and stopped being used.