The Garden of Learning

General Knowledge

The first statin drug was isolated from which kind of organism?

  • A mold
  • A yeast
  • A bacterium

The answer is A mold. A Penicillium mold — mevastatin, found in 1976.

Mold

A mold or mould is one of the structures that certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Not all fungi form molds. Some fungi form mushrooms or ascomata; others grow as single cells and are called yeasts.

Wikipedia · Mold