gramicidin
- n an antibiotic produced by a soil bacterium; used chiefly as an antiseptic in treating local infections produced by Gram-positive bacteria
- Gramicidin is not a mold extract, but is produced by bacteria.
- In spite of such failings, gramicidin touched off a chain reaction.
- The TB culture may or may not be his greatest achievement: his discovery (in 1937) of gramicidin, first of the germ-killing mold extracts, led to the development of penicillin.