When was the first antibiotic?

Answer 1

In the early 40s, the term antibiotic was defined as an agent derived from a microorganism that is antagonistic, when in dilution, to the growth of other microorganisms. This definition would exclude the sulfa drugs, but nowadays, this distinction is ignored.

The action is considered important, not the derivation.

When (in the 30s) the original discovery that the basis for sulfa drugs (e.g. sulfonamides) dated back to 1906, then a flood of various derivatives of this form of antibiotic was unleashed. For the patents had long expired.

Its action is to mimic the activity of folic acid, which the harmful bacteria need for reproduction. But it is not folic acid, the thus the bacteria are unable to multiply effectively.

So it depends on your definition of an antibiotic.

Answer 2

Chloromycetin is often cited as being the first synthetic antibiotic. However, although it can be produced synthetically (and may have been the first antibiotic to be industrially produced like this) chloromycetin is still an entirely natural molecule (Ehrlich et al., 1947).

The first completely synthetic and clinically relevant antibiotic for which there is no natural analogue is nalidixic acid, discovered in 1962 (Lesher et al., 1962).

References:

Ehrlich J, Bartz QR, Smith RM, Joslyn DA & Burkholder PR (1947) Chloromycetin, a new antibiotic from a soil Actinomycete. Science 106: 417-417.

Lesher GY, Froelich EJ, Gruett MD, Bailey JH & Brundage RP (1962) 1,8-naphthyridine derivatives. A new class of chemotherapeutic agents. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 91: 1063-1065.

Answer 3

1935, when the early sulfa drugs were discovered. These mimic the B vitamins, essential to the reproductive process in the bacteria, and are taken up as if they were so. But are incapable of producing the results of the Bs, so the bacteria life-cycle dies out. Won a Nobel prize for the discoverer.

Answer 4

Synthetic antibiotics were introduced in the 1930's. The first sulfa drug, which was named Prontosil was discovered by German doctor Gerhard Domagk.

Answer 5

The first proper antibiotic appeared and properly used in 1940.

Answer 6

First safe antibiotics were invented in 1945 by British scientists Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain, who expanded the penicillin research of Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming.