![]() The term "antibiotic" derives from anti + βιωτικός ( biōtikos), "fit for life, lively", which comes from βίωσις ( biōsis), "way of life", and that from βίος ( bios), "life". In current usage, the term "antibiotic" is applied to any medication that kills bacteria or inhibits their growth, regardless of whether that medication is produced by a microorganism or not. It also excluded synthetic antibacterial compounds such as the sulfonamides. This definition excluded substances that kill bacteria but that are not produced by microorganisms (such as gastric juices and hydrogen peroxide). The term antibiotic was first used in 1942 by Selman Waksman and his collaborators in journal articles to describe any substance produced by a microorganism that is antagonistic to the growth of other microorganisms in high dilution. These drugs were later renamed antibiotics by Selman Waksman, an American microbiologist, in 1947. Antibiosis was first described in 1877 in bacteria when Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch observed that an airborne bacillus could inhibit the growth of Bacillus anthracis. The term 'antibiosis', meaning "against life", was introduced by the French bacteriologist Jean Paul Vuillemin as a descriptive name of the phenomenon exhibited by these early antibacterial drugs. ![]()
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