Question

The first antibiotic was discovered from
A)Algae
B)Fungi
C)Bacteria
D)Actinomycetes

Answer 1

Antibiotics are defined as antimicrobial substances that are majorly used against bacteria for the treatment and prevention of various diseases. Some antibiotics are effective against protozoan diseases but they are not effective against viral infections.

Complete answer:
The first antibiotic discovered was penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming in the year of 1928. At that time Fleming was working with a culture of bacteria that caused infectious disease and in one of his culture plate he found the growth of spores of a green mold which he found was of Penicillium chrysogenum. He also observed that the presence of this mold would prevent the growth of the pathogenic bacteria. This made him conclude that the mold must secrete some antibacterial substance that hindered the growth of the bacteria. He along with the help of few other scientists purified the antibacterial substance and named it penicillin as it was obtained from Penicillium.

Since then many naturally occurring as well as synthetic antibiotics have been developed to treat against a wide range of diseases. Many of the antibiotics are known as broad range antibiotics since they are effective against a wide variety of microbes and many are narrow range antibiotics since they are effective against only specific microbes.

Hence, the correct answer is option (B)

Note: Though antibiotics are very important in treating harmful infections and diseases many a times they are seen to cause side effects, few of the common side effects are- allergic reactions, diarrhea, damage to mitochondria, etc. another major issue faced with antibiotics is the development of resistant bacteria.