antibiotics

     

An antibiotic (from Latin anti, "against" an Greek βιοτικός - biotikos, "fit for life") is a chemotherapeutic agent that inhibits or abolishes the growth of micro-organisms, such as bacteria, fungi, or protozoa. The term originally referred to any agent with biological activity against living organisms; however, "antibiotic" now refers to substances with anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, or anti-parasitical activity. The first widely used antibiotic compounds used in modern medicine were produced and isolated from living organisms, such as the penicillin class produced by fungi in the genus Penicillium, or streptomycin from bacteria of the genus Streptomyces. With advances in organic chemistry many antibiotics are now also obtained by chemical synthesis, such as the sulfa drugs. Many antibiotics are relatively small molecules with a molecular weight less than 2000 Da.

Trivia about antibiotics

  • Amoxicillin & ampicillin are types of these
  • From words meaning "against life", this class of drugs often derived from fungi is used against bacteria
  • If detected in time, plague is treatable with these drugs like streptomycin
  • Penicillin, the first of these drugs, comes from a fungus
  • From the Greek for "against life", these substances kill or inhibit the growth of infectious organisms
  • Milk is tested for these, such as penicillin, which may have been used to treat cows that fell ill
  • In 1943 Selman Waksman discovered streptomycin, a drug classified under this term he coined in 1941