The Production of Polyenic Antibiotics by Soil Streptomycetes

Abstract

Sixty Streptomyces isolates which produce polyene antibiotics were isolated from 25 soil samples collected in different parts of the world. Of these isolates 25 produced tetraenes, 23 produced pentaenes, 1 produced a hexaene and 15 produced heptaenes. One isolate produced simultaneously a tetraene and a pentaene, another produced a tetraene and a heptaene and a third produced a tetraene, a pentaene and a heptaene. The antibiotics showed activity against a wide range of fungi; the minimum inhibitory concentrations against Saccharomyces cereviseae, Aspergillus niger, Mucor racemosus, Candida albicans, Fusarium culmorum and Tricophyton mentagrophytes are given for 10 of them.