What are antibiotics? How are they produced
Answers
Answer:
Antibiotics commonly are produced by soil microorganisms and probably represent a means by which organisms in a complex environment, such as soil, control the growth of competing microorganisms. Microorganisms that produce antibiotics useful in preventing or treating disease include the bacteria and the fungi.
Antibiotics are the chemical substance which are released by the microorganism in trace amount to save them from other microorganism. It is used to slow down the growth or inhibit the growth of bacteria. The first antibiotics Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming.
Antibiotics work by damaging the bacterial cells and not the host cell. They are widely used to control bacterial disease such as pneumonia, cholera etc, they are not effective against virus.
Normally antibiotics is produced naturally by fungi and soil bacteria and on industrial scale it is produced by the process of fermentation.
During the fermentation process a huge amount of antibiotic producing microorganism such as fungi is grown. They are provided with the culture which contain nutrient for the growth of antibiotic producing microorganism. During fermentation process they produce a large amount of antibiotic materia in the culture vessel which can be isolated and used as a drug.
Example: Amoxicillin, cephalexin