When urine became medicine: How one bizarre scientific discovery reduced death by bacterial penumonia from 18% to less than 1% during World War II

Once, urine was a source of life-saving drugs. After Alexander Fleming discovered a mould that prevented Staphylococci bacteria from growing, and penicillin was used to treat a patient in 1942, demand for the antibiotic reached the stratosphere. However, according to an article published by McGill University, growing these moulds was difficult, and so was extracting penicillin molecules from them. The scientists then hit upon a rather innovative way of extracting penicillin – get it from the patient's urine!

When Urine Saved Lives

Our effective and diligent kidneys eliminate between 40 and 99 per cent of the antibiotic in urine in its fully functioning form approximately 4 hours after delivery, according to Smithsonian magazine. Because of this unique aspect of its pharmacokinetics, penicillin could be collected from a patient's crystallised urine and used to treat a patient who was suffering from a severe bacterial illness right next door.

As per the McGill University article, benzylpenicillin (also called penicillin G) has a bioavailability of only around 30%, which means that 70% of the dose you take is excreted in your urine. These molecules were extracted, purified, and utilised to treat other patients' infections. This method ultimately saved many lives, as penicillin was responsible for reducing the death rate from bacterial infection and pneumonia from 18% in World War I to less than 1% during World War II.


Luckily, with the discovery of a different species of penicillin-producing fungus on a cantaloupe, as well as improvements in fungus culturing techniques and strategic mutations, penicillin became much easier to produce. Modern penicillin antibiotics are also much more bioavailable than their early counterparts. In the case of the commonly used amoxicillin, oral bioavailability is roughly 95%.

Who Was Alexander Fleming?

Sir Alexander Fleming was a celebrated Scottish microbiologist. He was awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases" alongside Ernst Chain and Howard Florey. This was the first known antibacterial compound. The "single greatest victory ever achieved over disease" has been attributed to his 1928 discovery of benzylpenicillin (also known as penicillin G) from the mould Penicillium rubens.

In 1922, he also identified a bacterium he called Micrococcus lysodeikticus (later renamed Micrococcus luteus) and the enzyme lysozyme from his nasal discharge.