And finally…Fleming mould sample fetches £24,000

The green substance was produced by Fleming in his laboratory after he discovered penicillin in 1928.

The Ayrshire-born bacteriologist went on to the win the 1945 Nobel Prize in medicine for the revolutionary discovery.

The samples were sold at Bonhams in London for £24,375.

Fleming was studying influenza when he famously noticed mould had developed accidentally on a set of culture dishes being used to grow the staphylococci germ.

The mould had created a bacteria-free circle around itself. Fleming experimented further and named the active substance penicillin.

However, it was two other scientists - Australian Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, a refugee from Nazi Germany - who developed penicillin further so that it could be produced as a drug.

In addition to the mould samples, the lots sold included Fleming’s papers and memorabilia kept by his niece Mary Elizabeth Johnston.

Among them were Fleming’s journal of a 1945 tour of the United States and a 1957 telegram to him from the film star Bebe Daniels.

Head of Bonhams Book Department, Matthew Haley said: “The high prices paid for these lots reflect their importance and the enduring fascination with Alexander Fleming’s crucial discovery to which so many millions of people all over the world owe their lives.”