Penicillium glaucum

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Penicillium glaucum
Gorgonzola an Italian cheese containing "veins" of Penicillium glaucum.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Fungi Phylum: Ascomycota Class: Euascomycetes Order: Eurotiales Family: Trichomaceae Genus: Penicillium Species: P. glaucum
Binomial name
Penicillium glaucum

Penicillium glaucum is a mold which is used in the making of many types of cheese including the French bleu cheeses, Fourme d'Ambert, Gorgonzola, and Stilton.

In 1874, Sir William Roberts, a physician from Manchester noted that cultures of the mold did not display bacterial contamination. Louis Pasteur would build on this discovery, noting that Bacillus anthracis 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, but his thesis was ignored.

Penicillium glaucum feeds on only one optical isomer of tartaric acid, which makes it extremely useful in advanced higher chemistry projects on chirality.

See also Discoveries of anti-bacterial effects of penicillium moulds before Fleming