KARNAMICIN, A COMPLEX OF NEW ANTIFUNGAL ANTIBIOTICS

I. TAXONOMY, FERMENTATION, ISOLATION AND PHYSICO-CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES

Abstract

A complex of new antifungal antibiotics designated karnamicin was isolated from the cultured broth of Saccharothrix aerocolonigenes No. N806-4. Fifteen components have so far been isolated from the complex; the major component karnamicin B₂ was identified by X-ray crystallography to be a novel molecule unrelated to known antibiotics.
All components of karnamicin exhibited a rather broad spectrum of activity against fungi and yeasts with MICs ranging from 3.1 to 50 μg/ml.