Chapter 349: When the Mother of Success Was Young

"Infectious diseases have always been the focal point of medical research, with countless pathogens involved. Both internal and external medicine recognize that it is in this field that the clinical outcomes, life and death of countless patients are determined; thus, the pursuit of anti-infective drugs has existed since ancient times.

"In the past, our founding ancestor Fleming drew material from orange peel mold; administered intravenously, it reduced high fevers within three days and stabilized blood counts. Less than twenty years later, also from the soil, Schatz isolated the Actinomyces genus from his predecessor Waksman, obtaining streptomycin to treat Gram-negative bacteria and tuberculosis with remarkable effect.

"I do not understand why everyone is talking about traditional palliative care, as if anti-infective drugs are destined to be the place where the medical academy will suffer a crushing defeat. One year ago, I traveled south from Wendeng Port and began research on equipment and pharmaceuticals; two of the three essential elements of surgery were thus conquered. On the day the treatment protocols were updated, patients and colleagues alike rejoiced, a true combination of favorable terrain and human harmony.

"That state of vigorous vitality, where all things compete to emerge, is still before my eyes. Could it be that with both venue and funding secured, the situation has suddenly reversed, becoming an insurmountable predicament?

"No matter how you look at it, equipment gaps can be compensated by other means; the advantage lies with me!"

"Ah? Where is my bacteria?"

The former No. 2 Warehouse of the Convent, now the Knights' sealed laboratory.

The hand holding the glass Petri dish trembled slightly for Kraft; the exorbitant cost of the vessel effectively suppressed the amplitude and frequency of the tremor.

Fortunately, it was not the first time. Many days ago, the Grand Master of the Knights, having waited in vain for an abnormal outbreak, finally sorted out daily affairs to a certain extent and generously allocated the most secluded and independent area of the convent.

Part of the private property warehouse originally belonging to the convent's upper echelons has now become a laboratory, used to house glass and crystal instruments whose value may even surpass the rest.

As a dazzling array of instruments filled the wooden shelves, the thought of them sitting idle and gathering dust arose, naturally stirring new ideas.

Inspiration may have come from the mold spots seen on fruit peels in the humid weather; the next day's procurement list included a large batch of various meats, fish glue, bones, wheat flour, and refined salt.

Relying on relatively crude biological experimental skills and fairly sufficient culinary knowledge, a thick soup that would turn gelatinous upon cooling was born, rich in components loved by both microorganisms and multicellular organisms.

Then, scraping the target mold colony and sprinkling it into the Petri dish completed the sowing. By then, he had already begun to worry about how to accomplish organic solvent extraction under current conditions.

However, subsequent developments proved that worrying about extraction might have been too far ahead.

The cultivation cannot be said to have failed; it can only be said that it did not succeed in the hoped-for direction.

To offer some consolation, at least the culture medium was well-made, and the artistic quality of the result was relatively high.

The rich, vigorous colors growing inside constantly reminded him that the local micro-ecological environment and that of Westmin Fortress were highly similar.

If an artist were here, they would surely be inspired, spending vast amounts of precious pigments to create a rare masterpiece that would make Kup wake up in the middle of the night.

Fortunately, there were no artists here, nor was there Kup.

The latter had already led the team down the mountain; his situation was unknown, and it was estimated that significant progress would be difficult to achieve for some time.

Kraft was willing to trust him; this assistant already possessed sufficient experience for preliminary investigations, being cautious and knowing when to advance or retreat.

Viewed from a negative angle, this might seem somewhat cowardly, but for the work he might undertake in the future, knowing when to retreat three li was more important than futile bravery.

Mistakes in judgment were certainly inevitable, but there was no need to worry too much.

After all, Yvonne had been assigned to him.

Thinking that he no longer had to do everything personally, even Kraft felt relieved and spirited. He immediately decided to split today's clerical work half-and-half with Brother Lei Mengde, leaving some free time.

Apart from the unsuccessful experiment, he was quite satisfied with the new laboratory.

The space was ample, and the instruments were complete; perhaps only the Medical School of Dunling University when Professor Mo Lisen was still alive could compare.

No, even Dunling University would not have such a vast quantity of brand-new glass instruments.

Rows of white glass, oddly shaped jars and kettles were stacked in boxes lined with pure cotton; perhaps they too were curious why the master of the experiment spent his days observing meat broth instead of devoting himself to complex physical-chemical reactions.

His failure obviously stemmed from a difficulty curve that was too steep.

The correct choice should have been to promptly discard the Petri dish, which was fully stocked with red, orange, blue, and purple but lacked green, wash his hands, lock the door, and go next door.

The charitable clinic under the convent was about to open; he had to prepare some top-secret items early on, lest the monks, whose level was inferior to that of David V, had nothing to offer but prayers and boiled root water.

However, what he was doing was essentially no different from boiling root water.

He chopped two bundles of dried willow bark on the table, threw them into a round-bottom flask, poured in high-concentration alcohol, and immersed the entire flask in warm water for heating.

As a natural medicine, the willow bark should theoretically be rich in salicin, which can be extracted by alcohol.

The content was uncertain; no one had taught him, nor had he seen it. Kraft was only familiar with industrial products and their appearance after being pressed into starch tablets and bottled.

Waiting until it was soaked enough—of course, he did not know when that was; he just stared as the liquid color in the bottle gradually darkened, from pale yellow to amber, then removed it to cool.

Theoretically, at this point, the salicin should have transferred into the alcohol along with the pigments.

The next step was to filter out the bark, continue heating to evaporate part of the alcohol, and concentrate until a higher concentration solution was formed—do not let it boil.

Thus, the liquid color continued to darken, shifting toward brown, while suspicious, incompletely filtered residues resembling tea dregs churned up and down, like a mind uneasy due to rough handling.

Out of concern, Kraft filtered it again with fine cotton cloth, adding dilute sulfuric acid in the process. A bit too much, but it didn't matter; theoretically, an acidic environment was needed anyway.

Once the acidity was appropriate, the solution contained the hydrolysis product of salicin—saligenin.

If he remembered correctly, according to a casual mention tucked away in the corner of an extracurricular interest expansion section of a medical chemistry organic chapter, all that was needed now was to drip concentrated sulfuric acid into it, as the oxidation product had very low solubility in an acidic environment.

It was that simple: two bundles of willow bark, alcohol, sulfuric acid, plus glass instruments worth a house in Dunling's Old Town; the snowflake-like precipitate that would now be witnessed was the precursor to the legendary non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and painkiller aspirin... salicylic acid.

Compared to its acetylated brother, it had low solubility, poor absorption, an outrageous taste, strong gastrointestinal side effects, an anti-thrombotic effect close to zero, and such high irritation that it could be used to remove skin keratin; but its strength lay in the fact that it could be accomplished under existing theoretical conditions.

This was already the limit of what he could do; his operational skills still fell short of Father Adrian, the distillation master of Comfort Port, who could control fire with bare hands.

"Something's wrong, why is there no precipitate?!"

(End of this chapter)