Question

The term antibiotic was coined by
(A) Edward Jenner
(B) Louis Pasteur
(C) Selman Waksman
(D) Alexander Fleming

Answer 1

Antibiotics are antimicrobial substances commonly used to treat bacterial diseases and infections. They either actively kill bacteria or inhibit their growth. Antibiotics can be produced naturally or completely synthetically.

Complete answer:
The first antibiotic discovered was penicillin by Alexander Fleming accidentally. Fleming was studying one of the variations of Staphylococcus aureus, a round shaped opportunistic bacteria. Before leaving for a vacation, Fleming inoculated some culture plates with Staphylococcus. When he returned back, he found one of his plates to be contaminated with green moulds of fungi. He was surprised to observe that there was no bacterial growth immediately around the mould but normal growth away from it. He then isolated the mould, cultured it and found it to be Penicillium. He also found that the antimicrobial agent was working against most of the gram-positive bacteria.
Initially, the term ‘antibiosis’ was used by scientists as it meant ‘against life’. However, in 1942, Selman Waksman used the word ‘antibiotics’ to address any compound produced by a microorganism which is lethal to another microorganism in high dilution. In the word antibiotics, ‘anti’ means ‘lively’ and ‘biosis’ mean ‘way of life’.

Thus, the term antibiotic was coined by (C) Selman Waksman.

Note: Selman Waksman not only coined the term bacteria but has discovered more than 15 antibiotics. Some of the antibiotics discovered by him and his team are candidin, actinomycin, streptomycin, neomycin, streptothricin, clavacin, grisein, fradicin, and candicidin.
The contributions of other scientists in the option:
Louis Pasteur – Pasteurisation, vaccines (chicken cholera, swine, rabies, and swine erysipelas), microbial fermentation.
Edward Jenner – discovered vaccine for smallpox, the world’s first vaccine.