Mycobacterium species against

Amikacin and kanamycin (see Chapter 46) have been used in the treatment of tuberculosis. Amikacin is very active against several mycobacterium species however, it is expensive and has significant toxicity. It is considered in the treatment of MDR tuberculosis after streptomycin and capreomycin. An additional use of amikacin is in the treatment of disseminated MAC in AIDS patients. There is no cross-resistance between streptomycin and other aminoglycosides most M. tuberculosis strains that are resistant to streptomycin are... 

Recently, a somewhat similar antibiotic, coumermycin (52), was isolated from Streptomyces hazelienses [381, 382] and fromS fr. rishiriensis [383,384] and found to be active against Gram-positive as well as some Gram-negative bacteria [383, 385]. Its action against some Mycobacterium species has also... 

The volatile oil of H. italicum flowers has been reported to exhibit antimicrobial properties in vitro against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, a Mycobacterium species, and Candida albicans. High activities were observed in oil samples containing higher concentrations of nerol, geraniol, eugenol, P-pinene, and furfural. ... 

Chicago, shows that of the 58,850 plant species listed in the database, 6,550 species had published experimental antimicrobial activity, of which almost 4000 species had ethnomedical data supporting the use of these plants to treat infectious disease [14, 18], The majority of the plants had activity against a range of bacteria, fungi or Mycobacterium. 

The antimicrobial activity of aporphine alkaloids in general has been tested and oxoaporphines were the most active [108]. Some of these alkaloids are found to be toxic for mammalian cells in tissue cultures [109]. In another study of antimicrobial activity of fourteen benzylisoquinoline alkaloids, two oxoaporphines isolated from species of South American Menispermaceae, lysicamine (10) and O-methylmoschatoline (homomoschatoline) (11), had activity against cocci and gram positive bacilli, including Mycobacterium phlei [110]. 

Waksman and his collaborators grew a batch of a soil microorganism called Actinomyces griseus and isolated their first antibiotic from the brew in 1940. They called it actinomycin, after the species of microorganism from which it was isolated. In 1942 they isolated streptothricin. Like actinomycin, it was too toxic to use in humans, but unlike actinomycin, it destroyed the tubercle bacillus. Encouraged by these discoveries, Waksman continued to test, or screen, other soil microbes for their ability to produce antibiotics with activity against the bacteria that caused tuberculosis (now known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis). 

S. ciliata (G. Don) B.L. Burtt syn. S. purpurascens Clarke a species of Swertia, is an annual, erect, solitary or tufted, branched, scaberulous herb, used as a substitute for true chirata . It is most commonly distributed in temperate N-W Himalaya, 1,700-4,100 m, from Kashmir to Kumoan [67]. The roots contain alkaloids. Xanthones, reported from the plant showed activity against mycobacterium tuberculosis. The extracted xanthone-O-glucosides showed noteworthy CNS depressant, cardiovascular stimulant and anticonvulsant activities. Swertisin and an iridoid swertiamarin (60) have been reported from this species [89]. 

It is interesting to note that most common activity that daidzein and its derivatives exhibit seems to be predominantly antimicrobial (Table 13). Daidzein 41, a possible precursor for 5-deoxyisoflavones, has been reported in several Erythrina species [38-40,76,94-96] and is a well-known dietary phytoestrogen [13b]. It has been reported also to exhibit weak to moderate antibacterial activity and weak radical scavenging properties on the DPPH radical [38-39J. 8-prenyldaidzein 42, so far reported only ill two Erythrina species [21,95], was found lo be active against S. aureus (MIC 10.5 pg/ml, tetracycline 0.1 pg/ml, erythromycin 0.2 pg/ml), B. subtilis (10.5 ftg/ml, tetracycline 0.2 pg/ml) and Mycobacterium smegmatis (12.5 pg/ml,... 

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