Question

Waksman and Woodruff (1941) were responsible for the isolation of
A. Streptomycin
B. Penicillin
C. Actinomycin
D. Neomycin

Answer 1

Hint: It is a chemotherapy drug used to cure a variety of forms of cancer. This includes Wilms tumor, rhabdomyosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma, etc.

Complete Answer:
Selman Abraham Waksman was a Ukrainian-born Jewish-American scientist, biochemist and microbiologist whose study into the decomposition of soil species has contributed to the discovery of streptomycin and many other antibiotics. H. Boyd Woodruff, the founding father of the biochemical engineering discipline, has made a number of important contributions to industrial microbiology. His intense hunt for soil antimicrobial agents played a key role in the study that led to the Nobel Prizes in Physiology and Medicine.
Peter Pringle chronicles Albert Schatz's discovery of streptomycin while studying in Waksman's laboratory at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
In 1929, Fleming introduced a mould by-product called penicillin to treat bacterial infections.
Waksman and Woodruff were responsible for the separation of the Actinomycin antibiotic from Actinomyces sp. It is a chemotherapy drug used to cure multiple cancers. Actinomycin is an antibiotic that prevents the development of gram-negative bacteria and is also used to treat typhoid, dysentery, cholera and undulant fever.
Neomycin sulphate is a type of antibiotic that was discovered by Selman Waksman. He is a microbiologist. Neomycin belongs to the antibiotic aminoglycoside family which protects against gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria.

Thus, the correct answer is option C. i.e., Actinomycin.

Note: Actinomycin is treated by injection into a vein. Actinomycin is a transparent, yellowish material given intravenously and most widely used in the treatment of a wide range of cancers.