Prontosil

<p>Prontosil is an <a href="/facts/Antibacterial/sF1kIfxg">antibacterial</a> drug of the <a href="/facts/Sulfonamide_(medicine)/4vXtwwwm">sulfonamide group</a>. It has a relatively broad effect against <a href="/facts/Gram-positive_bacteria/H6WYQ17e">gram-positive</a> <a href="/facts/Coccus/51QVlEDC">cocci</a> but not against <a href="/facts/Enterobacteriaceae/6vh55fHY">enterobacteria</a>. One of the earliest <a href="/facts/Antimicrobial/80ECEmvP">antimicrobial</a> drugs, it was widely used in the mid-20th century but is little used today because better options now exist. The discovery and development of this first <a href="/facts/Sulfonamide/h1sVXW41">sulfonamide</a>-containing drug opened a new era in medicine, because it greatly widened the success of <a href="/facts/Antimicrobial_chemotherapy/LfFFRJjk">antimicrobial chemotherapy</a> in an era when many physicians doubted its still largely untapped potential. At the time, <a href="/facts/Disinfectant/33fF2QzG">disinfectant</a> cleaners and topical <a href="/facts/Antiseptic/ua05WK9M">antiseptic</a> wound care were widely used but there were very few <a href="/facts/Antimicrobial/80ECEmvP">antimicrobial</a> drugs to use safely inside living bodies. <a href="/facts/Antibiotic/sF1kIfxg">Antibiotic</a> drugs derived from microbes, which are relied on heavily today, did not yet exist. Prontosil was discovered in 1932 by a research team at the <a href="/facts/Bayer/fnYepBcG">Bayer</a> Laboratories of the <a href="/facts/IG_Farben/3cTsQw87">IG Farben</a> conglomerate in Germany led by <a href="/facts/Gerhard_Domagk/bwU90jR4">Gerhard Domagk</a>. Domagk received the 1939 <a href="/facts/Nobel_Prize_in_Physiology_or_Medicine/rlnpJX84">Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine</a> for that discovery.
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Prontosil open-in-new

Prontosil