Streptomycin was the first drug found to be active against gram negative bacilli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In 1947 the Medical research Council (MRC) obtained a small supply of streptomycin for treatment of tuberculosis.
Page 14/22
In 1932 Selman
Waksman showed that when Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the cause of tuberculosis,
was added to certain types of soil the bacteria died.
In 1953, he coined the term antibiotic to explain this phenomenom:
"... a chemical substance, produced by microorganisms, which has the capacity to inhibit the growth and even to destroy bacteria and other microorganisms, in dilute solutions"
| In 1943 Waksman was joined by a PhD student called Albert Schatz. Schatz
tested hundreds of soil organisms for antibacterial activity. After three months
he isolated an organism - Streptomyces griseus - with antibacterial
properties from a sick chicken. The antibiotic it produced was called Streptomycin.
Schatz purified the drug.
Streptomycin was the first drug found to be active against gram negative bacilli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In 1947 the Medical research Council (MRC) obtained a small supply of streptomycin for treatment of tuberculosis. |
|
