Chloramphenicol Essay

695 Words3 Pages
Chloramphenicol is an antibiotic that is prescribed to treat all kinds of bacterial infections. It was first quarantined from the bacterium “Streptomyces venezuelae” in the year 1947. Chloramphenicol is in the form of white crystalline, neutral compound that is soluble in alcohol; it is not soluble in water. The chemistry of Chloramphenicol is it has two chiral centers which mean it has four stereoisomers or four possible structures; they include D-erythro isomers and L-erythro isomers. All the isomers of chloramphenicol are different from each other because one form is effective and active while the other from isn’t. Antibiotics work by binding to bacterial ribosomes and prevent protein synthesis from occurring. In order to understand the action of Chloramphenicol and its isomers it’s necessary to define the steps in protein synthesis (Diagram 1). Proteins contain only L-amino acids. The four possible stereo isomers of chloramphenicol which has two chiral centers, only one act as an antibiotic because of its geometric because of its geometric shape and that is chloramphenicol, its enantiomers is not. It is necessary; therefore, that the chiral compounds be available in the desired enantiomer forms. The process of separating the isomer from its enantiomer is through asymmetric synthesis. D-erythro is very effective and has clinical usefulness. It has about 98% bacteriostatic potency. L-erythro however, has only 2% bacteriostatic potency. What this means is D-erythro is very effective in stopping the synthesis of protein in species of bacteria whereas L-erythro on the other hand is not effective. D-erythro is capable of binding to the 50S subunits of the ribosomes while its enantiomer is not. However, chloramphenicol and its enantiomer can be twice as effective together. D-erythro prevents the accumulation of L-glutamyl peptide in species of bacteria but L-erythro

More about Chloramphenicol Essay

Open Document