Many fungi produce chemicals that kill or arrest the growth of other organisms (including other fungi and herbivores), thus reducing competition for food. Where the action takes place against micro-organisms such as bacteria, the chemicals are known as antibiotics. The medical significance of the antibiotic penicillin, produced by the mould Penicillium notatum and discovered by Fleming in 1928, lay dormant until the early 1940s when Chain and Florey initiated its development as a pharmaceutical drug. Antibiotics, although a massive breakthrough in medicine, were by no means the first uses of fungi in health care.
 

Claviceps pupurea - Ergot	CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE FUNGI USED IN MEDICINE	Fomes fomentarius - Touchwood fungus
	Note that the antibiotic properties of many fungi may have been used in traditional medicine without an actual awareness of their existence. The puffballs are a case in point.  To see more, click here.......	LYCOPERDACEAE

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