Advances in the Chemistry of Antibiotic Substances from Higher Plants

Abstract

Twenty years after the discovery of penicillin by Fleming, when the medical potential of this antibiotic was realised, intensive research was started on the antibiotic substances of lower plants, bacteria and fungi. This work has resulted in the discovery pi many important pharmaceuticals and it is now difficult to conceive of medical therapy without them. By comparison, however, the defence mechanisms of higher plants against fungi and bacteria has received scant attention, although these doubtless exist. In particular, the question as to whether low molecular weight plant constituents possess antibiotic activity has only occasionally been answered. This is chiefly because these substances are present in the plant mostly as inactive precursors, which must be converted into active antibiotics by enzymes released when the plant tissue is damaged.