Since we've been discussing medications and how to deal with medications being in short supply for a plethora of reasons, I am going to take the conversation up a notch.

How to make homemade penicillin.
Commonly penicillin can be made from bread or an orange. The orange is controversial because it may grow a nontherapeutic strain of penicillin. So best to stick with the bread.



[link to youtu.be (secure)]

Now for the insulin. Insulin comes from the pancreas. Butchers usually toss this organ. If you have a type 1 diabetic in the family, you need to friend a butcher for grid down scenario.

This was posted by James Wesley Rawles. He has authored quite a few post apocalyptic books. He often uses the insulin dependent diabetic child as part of the first wave of casualties because of the need for the insulin to be kept cool and decrease in potency.

To make the insulin you will need some basic lab supplies but doable.

[link to survivalblog.com (secure)]

He uses mammals or fish.

INSULIN FROM MAMMALS
As soon as you can after slaughtering the animal for food, remove the pancreas and begin processing. The traditional method of preparation is as follows — s recounted in several publications, but this method dates back to 1925:

The beef or pork pancreas is finely minced in a larger grinder and the minced material is then treated with 5 c.c. of concentrated sulphuric acid, appropriately diluted, per pound of glands. The mixture is stirred for a period of three or four hours and 95% alcohol is added until the concentration of alcohol is 60% to 70%. Two extractions of the glands are made. The solid material is then partially removed by centrifuging the mixture and the solution is further clarified by filtering through paper. The filtrate is practically neutralized with Sodium Hydroxide. The clear filtrate is concentrated in a vacuum to about 1/15 of its original volume. The concentrate is then heated to 122F (50C) which results in the separation of lipoid and other materials, which are removed by filtration. Ammonium sulphate (37 grams. per 100 c.c.) is then added to the concentrate and a protein material containing all the Insulin floats to the top of the liquid.

Rest of the recipe at the link.

Less than 50% of article

The price of insulin alone has caused casualties.