Question

What are antibiotics? Name any two examples.

Answer 1

Hint: Pathogenic microbes cause various types of diseases in living organisms. They grow inside the host by division and spread disease inside the host or from one organism to other organisms. A specific type of drug is used to stop the growth of microorganisms which only act on pathogens without harming the host.

Complete answer:
Antibiotics are defined as a drug which destroys or slows down the growth of pathogens like bacteria. Several types of antibiotics are invented to cure the various types of diseases like fever, pneumonia, tuberculosis, sore throat, etc. Two examples of antibiotics are Bacitracin and Griseofulvin. Bacitracin obtains from source Bacillus licheniformis used to cure syphilis, lymphoma, and reticulosis. Griseofulvin obtains from Penicillium griseofulvin used to cure ringworm.

Additional Information:
The first discovered antibiotic is penicillin obtained from Penicillium notatum used to cure the wound of the American soldier in world war II.
Other antibiotics were discovered later to cure several diseases including
Neomycin obtains from Streptomyces fradiae use to cure a disease caused by gram-negative and gram-positive bacilli.
Fumagillin obtains from Aspergillus fumigatus used to cure a disease caused by Salmonella and Shigella.
Penicillin obtained from Penicillium chrysogenum is used to cure tonsillitis, sore throat, gonorrhea, rheumatic fever, and pneumonia.
Streptomycin obtains from Streptomyces griseus use to cure meningitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and local infection.
Chloramphenicol is obtained from Streptomyces venezuelae used to cure typhoid, typhus, whooping cough, atypical pneumonia, and bacterial urinary infections.
Tetracyclines obtained from Streptomyces aureofaciens are used to cure viral pneumonia, osteomyelitis, and eye infections.
Erythromycin is obtained from Streptomyces erythreus used to cure typhoid, pneumonia, diphtheria, and whooping cough.
Oxytetracycline is obtained from Streptomyces rimosus used to cure intestinal and urinary infections.

Note: Broad-spectrum antibiotics destroy a number of pathogens while specific antibiotics are useful against only one pathogen. Antibiotics generally disrupt cell wall formation, ribosome, protein synthesis, and synthesis of the plasmalemma.