Antibiotics
Antibiotics are natural substances that can be used to fight bacterial infections.
Antibiotics are produced and secreted naturally by bacteria and fungi. Biotechnology is also used to produce antibiotics in forms and quantities that allow safe administration to people suffering from bacterial infections.
The first antibiotic discovered was penicillin. Penicillin was discovered in 1928 by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming and was widely used on large numbers of patients in World War II (1939–45). Howard Florey (from Australia) and Ernst Chain (originally from Germany) later discovered how to collect and purify penicillin from the fungus that produces it.
Antibiotics commonly used to fight infections include:
- erythromycin – obtained from Streptomyces erythreus
- ampicillin – a semisynthetic penicillin which acts against more bacteria than penicillin. It is used to treat gonorrhoea and infections of the intestinal, urinary, and respiratory tracts.
- novobiocin - produced by Streptomyces nivens.
Natural antibiotics - work sheet [PDF 36kb | 2 pages]
Read more on the discovery of penicillin: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/