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It is over sixty years since Alexander Fleming observed antibiosis between a Penicillium mould and bacterial cultures and gave the name penicillin to the active principle. Although it was proposed in 1943 that penicillin (1) contained a tJ-Iactam ring, this was not generally accepted until an X-ray crystallographic determination of the structure had been completed. RCONH )=r)< o '" (I) 'C0 H 2 Penicillin was the first naturally occurring antibiotic to be characterised and used in clinical medicine. It is now seen as the progenitor of the tJ-Iactam family of antibiotics, which are characterised by the possession of the four membered tJ-Iactam ring. Chapters in this book will describe how current research has demonstrated that other lactam structures may also show antibacterial activity. Penicillins and cephalosporins (2), the second member of the tJ-Iactam antibiotic family, were both originally discovered in fungi but later detected in streptomycetes. Until 1970 penicillins and cephalosporins were the only examples of naturally occurring tJ-Iactam antibiotics. The discovery of 7-a-methoxy cephalosporins (3) from Streptomyces in 1971 stimulated the search for novel tJ-Iactam antibiotics from microbes, both by using sensitive new screening procedures, and by laboratory synthesis.
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Table of contents (10 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Editors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Chemistry of β-Lactams
Editors: Michael I. Page
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2928-2
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
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eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1992
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-7514-0061-8Published: 30 September 1992
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-010-5300-6Published: 29 October 2012
eBook ISBN: 978-94-011-2928-2Published: 06 December 2012
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIX, 351
Topics: Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, general