Production of Antibiotics by Micro-organisms
Antibiotics are produced by a number of micro-organisms and inhibit the growth of other micro-organisms even at very low concentrations. As such, the antibiotics have found wide application in chemotherapy, plant pathology, food preservation, veterinary medicine and as research tools in biochemistry and molecular biology. At present about 7000 antibiotics are known and about 100 of these are produced commercially by microbial fermentation process. The first antibiotic to be isolated was penicillin which was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1929 and was produced on large scale using cultures of Penicillium notatum during 1940s.

During World War II, the demand for chemotherapeutic agents to treat wound infection led to the development of a production process
for penicillin and marked the beginning of an era of antibiotic research. This continues to be the most fascinating area of microbial biotechnology even today. The status of the production of different antibiotics in India is summarized in the table.