In article <3675D726.2C50 at tu-bs.de>, S.Greve at tu-bs.de says...
>>Hello!
>Not long ago I tried to get an answer according to wether antibiotics
>have to be produced by microorganisms in order to be called
antibiotics.
>But alas, there was no one there who was able and willing to give me an
>accurate answer to my question. So here I come and try again.
>Obviously there is a difference between an antimicrobial agent in
>general and an antibiotic as penicillin or something similar. Otherwise
>there would not be another name, would it? Furthermore, I would not
call
>lysozyme an antibiotic. Is this at least correct?
>The original question referred to wether antimicrobial agents produced
>by metazoae can be called antibiotics or not.
>I do not think this question is trivial, if so, please let me know - I
>will immedeately stop bothering you.
>>Many thanks in advance
>>Stefanie Greve
The question is not trivial, as I am sure tens of thousands of
students have gained or lost points on exams with answers to nitty
gritty like this.
On a practical level, I would use antimicrobials as a general term/
being careful not to confuse with 'antiseptics or disinfectants' which
are also antimicrobials. With regard to antibiotics I personally don't
object to the use of the term for all antimicrobials used in human or
veterinary medicine, e.g. sulfa etc.
Discussions and arguements about the boundaries of one vs the other
are essentially useless except for the academic purpose of being certain
that students comprehend the general distinctions among these agents.
Aguement beyond that point is like arguing whether viruses are living
or dead, sound is produced by a falling tree when no one is there to
hear it, and similar nonsense.
As antimicrobial is the more general term, one is less apt to blunder
(and OH G_D FORBID appear ignorant) using that term to include the
antibiotics. That is, antibiotics are one class of antimicrobials.
I'm rambling and apologize but I think we can get into some of the
same issues with vitamins and trace elements and 'essential' amino
acids. It is important to know the distinctions, but pointless to
argue about the gray zones where definitions overlap.
