Eli5: How is penicillin created from something potentially toxic such as mold?
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Penicillin (and other antibiotics) **is** a toxic substance, that the mold uses in chemical warfare to assert it’s “territory”.
Many (most) microorganisms do that.
Not all toxins are toxic to all organisms. (Like the mold producing Penicillin would not prosper very well, if in died to Penicillin). The biggest problem with bacteria that cause our ilnesses is that they produce toxins that are actually toxic to us.
Our symbiotic bacteria also produce chemicals directed at killing microorganisms, but non toxic to us.
Luckilly Penicilin is toxic to many types of bacteria but not to us.
(Fun fact: fungi cells are more similar to animal cells than to bacteria, which may help explain, why there are some fungi toxins, that do not affect animal – and human – cells. But also it is very difficult to make fungicides, that would be completelly harmless to humans).
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