Antibiotics, 1. General

Abstract

Antibiotics can be defined as chemical substances capable of inhibiting the growth of microorganisms. In the past decades, numerous compounds possessing various biological activities have been discovered. Antibiotics can be of microbial origin, semisynthic, or totally synthetic. Their classification is based mostly on structural characteristics. This article gives a comprehensive overview of the classes of antibiotica. The article contains sections titled: 1. Introduction 1.1. General Definition 1.2. Historical Development and Classification 1.3. Nomenclature 2. Chemotherapeutic Use of Antibiotics 2.1. Microbial Pathogens 2.2. Tumor Cells 2.3. Chemotherapeutic Uses 2.4. Use in Agriculture 2.5. Units 2.6. Analysis 3. Classification of Antibiotics 3.1. β‐Lactams 3.1.1. Natural Penicillins 3.1.2. Semisynthetic Penicillins 3.1.3. Natural Cephalosporins 3.1.4. Semisynthetic Cephalosporins 3.1.5. Cephamycins 3.1.6. 1‐Oxacephems 3.1.7. β‐Lactamase Inhibitors 3.1.8. Penems 3.1.9. Carbapenems 3.1.10. Monocyclic β‐Lactams 3.2. Tetracyclines 3.3. Anthracyclines 3.4. Aminoglycosides 3.5. Nucleosides 3.5.1. N ‐Nucleosides 3.5.2. C ‐Nucleosides 3.5.3. Carbocyclic Nucleosides 3.6. Macrolides 3.6.1. 12‐Membered Ring Macrolides 3.6.2. 14‐Membered Ring Macrolides 3.6.3. 16‐Membered Ring Macrolides 3.6.4. Polyenes 3.7. Ansamycins 3.8. Peptides 3.9. Enediyne 3.10. Other Important Antibiotics 4. Antibiotic Resistance