TY - JOUR T1 - KAnamycin AU - FINEGOLD SM Y1 - 1959/07/01 N1 - 10.1001/archinte.1959.00270070017003 JO - A.M.A. Archives of Internal Medicine SP - 15 EP - 28 VL - 104 IS - 1 N2 - Kanamycin was first described by Umezawa et al. in 19571; it is produced by Streptomyces kanamyceticus.Chemistry  The crystalline sulfate of kanamycin is water-soluble, alcohol-insoluble, and basic. It is a very stable compound with less than 10% loss after autoclaving for one hour at 120 C; it is stable over a pH range of 2 to 11. Cron and his co-workers2 have determined that kanamycin consists of two amino sugars linked glycosidally to 2-deoxystreptamine, with the structural formula shown in Figure 1. This structure resembles that of neomycin and has some similarity to streptomycin.Paper chromatography of kanamycin preparations reveals a second antibiotic, kanamycin B. Kanamycin B exhibited more toxicity than kanamycin A in animal studies 3 and is present to the extent of only 2% to 3% in later preparations of the drug.Microbiological Studies  1. Spectrum.  —In vitro, kanamycin is active against a variety of SN - 0888-2479 M3 - doi: 10.1001/archinte.1959.00270070017003 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinte.1959.00270070017003 ER -