Desertomycin, a New Crystalline Antibiotic with Antibacterial and Cytostatic Action

Abstract

A REPORT was recently published¹ of a new antifungal antibiotic, flavofungin, from a previously unreported Streptomyces strain, Streptomyces flavofungini. This species produces, besides flavofungin, another antibiotic. Its presence was demonstrated by the paper-chromatographic examination of the fermentation fluid and of the crude flavofungin. The Streptomyces strain originally isolated produces much more of this antibiotic than of flavofungin, in contrast to its natural variant, which synthesizes flavofungin more abundantly. The second antibiotic can be extracted from the fermentation broth as well as from the mycelium with organic solvents. We succeeded in obtaining hexagonal crystals from various solvent systems (Fig. 1). This new antibiotic was named ‘desertomycin’, after the source (African desert sand) of the Streptomyces strain which produces it.