ACTION AGAINST FUNGI 135 



results than peptone or nitrates. Glucose and sucrose were found to be 

 good carbon sources. It is of particular interest to note that whereas 

 penicillin and flavicin are produced in media containing complex or- 

 ganic materials as sources of nitrogen, fumigacin, clavacin, and glio- 

 toxin are produced in synthetic media, the presence of complex nitrogen 

 sources often being deleterious. 



Gliotoxin was isolated from the culture filtrate by the use of lipoid 

 solvents, chloroform being most effective. Nonsterilized media ad- 

 justed to /)H 2.5 to 3.0 could be used for large-scale production, the high 

 acidity reducing the effect of contaminants (966). Gliotoxin is stable in 

 neutral and acid solutions at room temperature j at alkaline reactions, 

 it is very unstable, the rate of decomposition increasing with increasing 

 alkalinity and temperature. At -pH 2.4, heating to 122° C. for 30 min- 

 utes did not affect the active substance. With decreasing acidity, espe- 

 cially at -pH 5.0, it became less thermostable. As pointed out above, 

 gliotoxin is also produced by A. jumigatus (593). 



Other Groups 



Various other fungi, including A. albus, A. niger, and Monilia albi- 

 cans, were found (1015) to exert a marked antibacterial action against 

 human and bovine tubercle bacteria j active filtrates were obtained, but 

 the specific agents were not isolated. The nature of the antibiotic sub- 

 stances produced by the other groups listed above has not been suffi- 

 ciently studied. 



ANTAGONISTIC ACTION OF FUNGI 

 AGAINST FUNGI 



Numerous fungi were found to exert antagonistic effects either 

 against fungi belonging to the same species (64, 87, 152, 304, 547, 578, 

 801, 851) or against other fungi (Table 29). This phenomenon is par- 

 ticularly important in connection with the study of plant diseases ( 1 60, 

 225,644,695,738, 815, 851,852,959, loii). The effects are selective 

 in nature. The hyphae of Peziza will kill various Mucorales, whereas 

 different species of Aspergillus and Penicillium are able to kill Peziza 



