This book describes the author's studies on streptomyces products inhibiting mycobacteria presented in the 1963 Squibb Lectures on the Chemistry of Microbial Products. The lectures are presented annually in the fall at the Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Of chief interest to the clinician is the large group of antibiotics which in vitro studies have shown to have some inhibitory effects on mycobacteria, 21 in the water soluble group and 25 in the water-insoluble group. Most of these are too toxic for human use. It is of interest that the water soluble basic antibiotics have the in vivo inhibitory effect that would be inferred from their in vitro action, while those that are not soluble in water have their inhibiting effect against tubercle bacilli only in vitro.
The author presents in detail the steps involved in purifying several antibiotics extracted from various streptomyces—pyridomycin, labilomycin,