Transmigrated to Ancient Times as a Female Prison Guard-Chapter 82: Making Antibiotics

The imperial court has already issued orders for the various routes to mobilize troops. Wherever there is an epidemic area, it must be completely sealed off.

Limited rations of grain and medicinal herbs are provided on a regular basis. fre𝚎w𝐞bn𝗼v𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝗼𝚖

The purpose is to prevent the epidemic from spreading nationwide.

This approach undoubtedly makes people in despair even more desperate.

Especially those already poor commoners, they now no longer care whether they are infected.

In order to fill their stomachs, they have begun gathering in the quarantine zone, constantly looting and killing the wealthy.

For a time, there was weeping across the land, a terrible sight.

The county government where Gong Xiaohua was located was not spared either. Fortunately, the county government had heavy defenses, so it was not breached by the mob.

The vice county magistrate was so anxious that he personally went to the courtyard of the doctors every day to inquire about the progress of the antidotes.

Since arriving in Shuangyu County, Gong Xiaohua and dozens of doctors in the county have adopted an isolation model.

No one was allowed to come and go freely. If someone needs to enter or leave, they must be fully protected.

The day after they arrived, they began trying various antidotal soups based on the patients' symptoms.

Based on the patients' symptoms, Gong Xiaohua tried all the famous wind-cold, cough-suppressing, epidemic-dispelling antidotal Chinese medicines she knew from her previous life.

In particular, there were several prescriptions that were not available in this era, but were very famous prescriptions in later generations.

For example, there were the Guizhi Decoction and Mahuang Decoction from Treatise on Cold Damage Disorders for treating wind-cold; the nine-ingredient Mongolian snakegourd root decoction from Essentials of the Golden Cabinet for treating wind-cold, and so on.

There were also the Sanqi Powder from Compendium of Materia Medica; the lily metal-securing decoction from Collected Explanations of Medical Texts and so on for treating coughs.

When this prescription came out, the other doctors also needed to participate in the evaluation.

"Old doctor, I have practiced medicine for many years, and this is the first time I have seen such a complete, perfect treatment for wind-cold and cough suppression."

"So accomplished at such a young age, remarkable!"

"Yes, yes indeed."

The doctors present all marveled repeatedly.

It is known that the most important cause of the large number of Daye residents dying every year comes from wind-cold coughs.

Especially for newborn infants, seven out of ten who get wind-cold cannot make it through.

This is also one of the most important reasons why the population is now sparse and people's life expectancy is not very long.

If these prescriptions are widely used in daily medical treatment, how many new lives could be saved in the future, and how many people's lifespan could be extended.

With this continuing, the population of Daye would be unimaginable.

They reported these prescriptions and their potential future impact one by one to the local county magistrate, prefect, and inspector.

After this epidemic, if they could survive by some fluke, they would definitely report upwards to promote these prescriptions nationwide.

This also completely broke the prejudice of the doctors towards Gong Xiaohua, and Gong Xiaohua led the research on antidotes.

Although these prescriptions could only play a slight role in treating the epidemic,

the county government still had them mass-produced and distributed to the common people to prevent wind-cold and coughs.

Compared to previous times, the number of quarantined commoners decreased slightly.

Facing so many antidotal soups without seeing any effects on the epidemic,

Gong Xiaohua guessed that the only medicine that could treat it now was probably antibiotics.

Antibiotics are very effective in treating plague.

From the current situation, the present epidemic was most likely caused by plague.

However, with such low medical standards at this time, not only would it take a long time to produce antibiotics, mass production would also be very difficult.

But no matter how difficult it was, antibiotics had to be made, otherwise the entire Nanlong Prefecture would become a dead city.

"Vice County Magistrate Wan, I need to make an antidotal medicine, but I need the county magistrate's help to get the tools."

"What antidote is it? How confident are you that it can cure the epidemic?"

"An antibiotic. If it can be made successfully, there is probably a 70 percent chance of curing the epidemic."

"What? 70 percent, that's great, there's hope to live, there's hope!" Vice County Magistrate Wan said with tears streaming down his face.

"Sir, about the tools...?"

"Look at me, got too excited. You say, what tools do you need? I'll get the best craftsmen in the county to find them for you. Whatever you need, just tell them directly."

So Gong Xiaohua drew illustrations of all the tools and gave them to the county magistrate.

The most important tool was the syringe.

According to Gong Xiaohua's requirements, the syringe body did not need fancy materials, just needed to be made successfully.

The needles had to be made of steel.

The most important thing now was to produce antibiotics, hoping they could be successfully cultured.

While she was making antibiotics, the other doctors were also curious and followed along to participate.

After all, in their eyes, Gong Xiaohua's medical skills were much stronger than theirs, so they couldn't miss the opportunity to learn.

When everything was ready, they officially began producing antibiotics.

She was going to produce penicillin this time.

The production process of this antibiotic was relatively simple, and the success rate was relatively high.

Of course, its ability to fight plague germs was weaker than other antibiotics, but it was enough to fight the current plague virus.

The first step was to make the culture medium solution.

This was made from yam boiled juice mixed with rice-ground juice.

Then penicillium mold was planted on the culture medium. This penicillium could be obtained from rotten fruits and vegetables.

The second step was to extract the cultured penicillium.

After completing the first step, wait about a week, pour the culture solution into a funnel.

Add vegetable oil to the filtered liquid and stir evenly, then let stand.

When the liquid separates into three layers, the top layer is liposoluble substances, the middle layer is insoluble substances, and the bottom layer is water-soluble substances.

Penicillin is a water-soluble substance, so you just need to extract the water-soluble substance.

The last step was the most critical one, purifying the penicillin.

Add the filtered penicillin solution to sterilized carbon powder, stir.

The carbon powder absorbs the penicillin. Put the carbon powder into a container, add steam water, and wash out the impurities.

Then add acidic water made with bitter wine, bitter wine is modern vinegar.

Finally add alkaline water, made by boiling seaweed juice.

The relatively pure penicillin will flow out at the bottom.

Seeing such a strange drug-making method, the doctors present had deep doubts.

Using moldy stuff to treat illness, wouldn't it just make the illness worse?

They thought it, so they spoke up about it.

"Little Hua, will this work? Won't it exacerbate the illness?"

"Don't worry, there shouldn't be big problems."

Finally it was time to test the effects.

The obtained penicillin was divided into portions, and patients with different symptoms were found to classify their phlegm.

A small amount of penicillin solution was absorbed onto paper strips and added to a small amount of phlegm.

Finally it was discovered that there were rings around the paper strips, indicating the medicine was effective.

"Vice County Magistrate Wan, success! It's effective. Now we can try it on some patients. If it works, we can mass produce it."