677 Addendum 



265a Lankamycin, C3cHe20i4, colorless crystals, m.p. 147-150° and 

 at 181-182°, "[a]ir" -94° (c 1.23 in ethanol). U.V. 289 

 ni/x. 



Typical erythromycin color tests were obtained. It is 

 notable that this macrolide contains no amino sugar. 



A second, unclassified antibiotic was isolated from the 

 same culture (Streptomyces violaceoniger (Waksman et 

 Curtis) (Waksman et Henrici). 



n64a Lankacidin, C4,5H,;,-Oi6N2, pale yellow microcrystalline powder, 

 m.p. 165-168°, [aW -161° (c 0.967 in ethanol), U.V. 

 227 m^ (log 2.95). 



Contained no N — CH3 or — OCH3 groups. 



It is interesting that spiramycin contains three sugars. *^^ 



A paper on the mode of action of erythromycin"* reports 

 that, when the antibiotic was added to growing cells of 

 E. coli, synthesis of protein (but not RNA or DNA) was 

 inhibited, as was adaptive formation of ^-galactosidase. 

 Lactose was the substrate. Oxygen uptake of resting cells 

 was inhibited in some organisms but not in others, but in 

 no case did cytochrome oxidase appear to be affected. 



The wild strain of Streptomyces kitasatoensis Hata pro- 

 duces leucomycin, a complex of six macrolide antibiotics, 

 while a mutant produces only two of these, although total 

 macrolide production was the same in each case.*"'^ "°- "^ 

 Probable empirical formulas of the members of the com- 

 plex are shown below : 



leucomycin formula melting point 



Ai C46HS1 O17N 



Ai C65H111O22N 



Bi C36H59O13N 214.5-216.5° 



B2 CssHesOieN 214-216° 



B3 C34H63 0,3N 216-217° 



B4 C38H59O16N 221-223.8° 



^'' Raymond Paul and Serge Tchelitcheff, Bull. Soc. chim. France, 

 150 (1960). 



^^ Hiroshi Nakagawa, Osaka Daigaku Igaku Zasshi II 3451 (1959). 

 (Chem. Abstr. 54 11154a) 



'^^ J. Abe, Y. Suzuki, T. Watanabe and K. Satake, Nippon Kagaku 

 Zasshi 31 969 (1960). 



■OT. Watanabe et al. Bull. Chem. Soc. Japan 33 1100 (1960). 



^^ Tetsuo Watanabe, Hisao Nishida, Jinnosuke Abe and Kazuo 

 Satake, ibid. 33 1104 (1960). 



