Soil in Medicine

Soils are sources for human medicine

Humans have also learned to use these microbial compounds in medicine. One of the most famous examples is penicillin, discovered accidentally in 1928 by Alexander Fleming after he observed that a fungus inhibited bacterial growth in a laboratory dish. This discovery transformed medicine and opened the age of antibiotics. Today, many antibiotics used in human medicine originate from compounds first discovered in microorganisms, including many found in soils.

Listen to the BBC podcast ‘In Our Time’ - episode ‘Penicillin’ – to explore the scientific and historical context of this discovery. The full episode lasts about 46 minutes, but the first 10 minutes already provide fascinating insights into the topic.

The next time you are ill and require medical treatment, you may remember that you owe your antibiotics to soil biodiversity, and that soil organisms have helped save millions of lives.

The question remains: What else is still hidden and unknown? Scientists continue to search soils for new antibiotics and medical compounds. This has become increasingly important because many disease-causing bacteria are evolving resistance to existing antibiotics. At the same time, most soil microorganisms are still unknown or cannot yet be cultured in laboratories. This means that soils may contain countless undiscovered compounds that could help treat diseases in the future – one of the many reasons to protect soil biodiversity.