The first randomized controlled clinical trial

Patulin is a mycotoxin produced by several Aspergillus species. We describe it in detail on this website here.

Patulin was the substance used in the very first controlled randomized clinical trial in the 1940's. The experiment was carried out by Philip D’Arcy Hart (mentioned in his obituary here) as an attempted cure for the common cold, and was reviewed by himself in 1999 in 'A change in scientific approach: from alternation to randomised allocation in clinical trials in the 1940s'.

The Patulin trial is described in detail in: 'Clinical trial of patulin in the common cold, Report of the Patulin Clinical Trials Committee' by the Medical Research Council, and is extensively reviewed in context in 'Commentary: The 1944 patulin trial: the first properly controlled multicentre trial conducted under the aegis of the British Medical Research Council' written by Iain Chalmers and Mike Clarke in 2004 .

The original paper describing Patulin as an 'antibiotic' is: Chain E, Florey WH, Jennings MA. An antibacterial substance produced by Penicillium claviforme. Br J Exp Pathol 1942; 29: 202-295.