What Is The Chemical Composition Of Antibiotics?

Each antibiotic is slightly different especially in terms of their structure, although they all have the same purpose, so it is difficult to answer your question without knowing which antibiotic you would like to know the structure of.

• Penicillin.

Perhaps the most well known type of antibiotic is penicillin, which is still used all over the world. This antibiotic has a rather complex structure. Each member of the penicillin antibiotic is made of a core skeleton, also called a 'penam'. This skeleton makes up the structure of penicillin. Its molecular formula is R-C9H11N2O4S. In this case, R represents the variable side chain that comes off the main structure.

• Varieties of penicillin.

There are actually several different types of penicillin that have been developed since its original discover. This means that the molecular mass can vary, for example, ordinary penicillin has a molecular mass of 313 g/mol whereas penicillin G has a molecular mass of 334 g/mol.

Some types of penicillin have also been created so that they have additional groups of molecules attached. These types usually have a molecular mass of around 500 g/mol. For example, one special type of penicillin is dicloxacillin and it has a molecular mass of 493 g/mol cloxacillin which has a molecular mass of 476 g/mol.

• History of penicillin.

The word penicillin does not actually refer to just one antibiotic, but a whole group of them, which is why there are so many different types. Penicillin is derived from a type of fungus called Penicillium.

The discovery of penicillin is one of the most well known and well looked at medical discoveries in history. It was so important and so significant in our history because it became the first ever drug that could be used effectively against serious diseases like syphilis, as well as dangerous infections caused by streptococci and staphylococci.