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Abstract

Vol.68 No.3 May 2020

Registration of the “Hekiso (Penicillin) Ampule” into the "Essential Historical Materials for Science and Technology" designated by the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo*

Morimasa Yagisawa1), Kunio Matsumoto2), Hiroyuki Kato3) and Satoshi Iwata3, 4)

1)Keio University Faculty of Pharmacy
(Past: Japan Antibiotics Research Association)
2)Kanagawa Institute of Technology
3)Japan Antibiotics Research Association
4)National Cancer Center Hospital

Abstract

Hekiso” is the Japanese name of penicillin manufactured via a unique domestic technology during the Second World War. The name ”Hekiso” was derived from the bluish-green color of the conidia of the producer fungus, Penicillium species. Recently, the sole remaining ”Hekiso ampule” still in existence, prepared by Morinaga Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd, in December of 1944 and owned by the Japan Antibiotics Research Association (JARA), was registered, under the registration No. 276, into the ”Essential Historical Materials for Science and Technology”. The selection and designation was granted by the National Museum of Nature and Science, in Tokyo.
The ”Hekiso ampule”, deposited by the JARA, has been on exhibit at the Naito Museum of Pharmaceutical Science and Industry since 1973. This was the same year the ”Penicillin Exhibition” was held at the museum. The formal designation made it possible to preserve the ”Hekiso ampule” for posterity as a piece of physical evidence representing a historical event in pharmaceutical research and development in Japan.
We describe, via investigation and analysis based on appropriate documents, the research and development of ”Hekiso” that was conducted under the cooperation among principal multidisciplinary scientists (from medicine, pharmacy, science, engineering, and agriculture) all of whom had been summoned to join the ”Penicillin Committee” as established by The Army Medical School. Furthermore, we describe, with the hope to encourage renewed interest in Japanese pharmaceutical industries under the spirit of ”OnkoChisin (developing new ideas based on study of the past)”, the proud historical achievement of science and technology in Japan. It was a brilliant achievement that the Committee succeeded in producing ”Japanese Penicillin” within only 9 months, despite a lack of information from the United Kingdom or the United States of America. Following this, industrial production of the ”Hekiso ampule” was accomplished within 2 months and practical therapeutic application was instituted for sick and wounded soldiers on the front lines, as well as victims of air-raids in downtown Tokyo.

*Part of this subject was presented at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for the History of Pharmacy held in Gifu on October 26, 2019

Key word

penicillin, antibiotics, fermentation, strain, historical material

Received

December 2, 2019

Accepted

January 22, 2020

Jpn. J. Chemother. 68 (3): 330-344, 2020