1.0 INTRODUCTION
Back in 1928, Alexander Fleming began the microbial drug era when he discovered in a Petri dish seeded with Staphylococcus aureus that a compound
produced by a mold killed the bacteria. The mold, identified as Penicillium notatum, produced an active agent that was named penicillin. Later, penicillin was isolated as a yellow powder and used as a potent antibacterial compound during World War II. By using Fleming’s method, other naturally occurring substances, such as chloramphenicol and streptomycin, were isolated. Naturally occurring antibiotics are produced by fermentation, an old technique that can be traced back almost 8000 years, initially for beverages and food production (Fleming,1929).Microbes have made a phenomenal contribution to the health and well-being of people throughout the world. In addition to producing many primary metabolites, such as amino acids, vitamins
and nucleotides, they are capable of making secondary metabolites, which constitute half of the pharmaceuticals on the market today and provide
agriculture with many essential products. This review, centers on these beneficial secondary metabolites, the discovery of which goes back 80 years to
the time when penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming (Fleming, 1929).Drug discovery is the process by which new candidate drugs are discovered. The chemical compounds that are present in plants and animals have been an important source of new bioactive compounds. Also, we can find organisms that live in air, water and soil that we don`t see, but posses a great variety of chemical that we can use to create new medicines. Bioactive compounds offer an enormous diversity of chemical structures with strong biologic effect; this is one of the reasons why natural products research cannot be replaced by synthesis chemistry as a source for new bioactive compounds. Actually, more than half of the currently used medicines came from natural sources or are related to them, specifically in the situation of anticancer drugs that more than 60% belongs from nature. (Gordaliza 2009). PalatinoLinotype-Italic;mso-bidi-font-style:italic">Based on the experience in this field, it is considered that a chemical compound isolated from natural origin should be fully assessed in order to be used to combat diseases; in this manner is important to consider the type of new chemical entities potentially applicable for partial or total synthesis, as well as its use in different kind of diseases that are treatable with these compounds Therefore it is very important to continue the search for new secondary metabolites potentially usable as drugs by human (Chin
et al 2006).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTENTS PAGES
1.0 INTRODUCTION
2.0 DRUG DISCOVERY FROM SOIL MICROORGANISMS
2.1 Importance of Drugs Discovered from Soil Microorganisms
3.0 APPLICATIONS OF DRUGS DISCOVERED FROM SOIL MICROORGANISMS
3.1 Antitumor Drugs
3.2 Enzyme Inhibitors
3.3 Immunosuppresants
3.4 Insecticides
3.5 Herbicides
4.0 PROBLEMS OF DRUGS DISCOVERED FROM THE SOIL MICROOGANISMS
4.1 Drug Resistance Bacteria
4.2 Mechanisms of Bacteria to become Antibiotics Resistant
5.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION REFERENCES