Section Review; Anti-infectives: Review of actinomycetes compounds 1990 – 1995

Abstract

Compounds with completely new chemical structures and/or with novel activity continue to be isolated at high rates from Actinomycetes. Per year, about 200 novel compounds are discovered from this origin. Although a large number of these compounds are still isolated on the basis of traditional antibiotic assays, an increasing proportion of compounds are discovered in high-throughput pharmacological screens. Unfortunately, the biological activities of most of them remain poorly characterised. The selection of novel strains combined with the development of new assays should allow further discoveries of bioactive secondary metabolites from Actinomycetes. This review provides some statistical information on actinomycetesderived natural products described over the period 1990 - 1994. Examples of new targets, new compounds with interesting biological activities and novel chemical structures are given (period 1990 - 1995).