History Of Antibiotics

1. Ancient History  In ancient Peru the Indians used bark from the cinchona tree to treat malaria. 2500 years ago, the Chinese were using moldy soybean curd for infections. Hippocrates wrote about the antibacterial properties of wine and salts.

2. 20^th Century 

   1. 1909  Paul Erlich discovered Salvarsan and arsen could be used to treat syphilis. He was the first to define the selective toxicity (magic bullet) concept, which is that a drug can be toxic to the parasite but will not harm the host.

   2. 1930’s  Domagk discovered the first sulfonamide (prontosil).

   3. 1929  the famous accidental discovery of penicillin G by Alexander Fleming.

   4. WWII Florey and Chain use penicillin to treat people and get the Noble prize.

   5. 1944  Walkman discovers streptomycin, 1947 saw chloramphenicol, 1948 tetracycline, 1952 erythromycin.

   6. 1960’s  able to synthesize new antibodies by molecular modification of existing drugs

   7. 1980’s  quinolones

   8. 2000  antifungals such as voriconazole and caspofungin are at the forefront of medicine.

Category: Pharmacology Notes