Recent developments in the chemistry of penicillins.

Abstract

The purpose of this review is to summarize the important developments in the chemistry of the penicillin molecule which have been reported in the scientific literature during the approximate period 1964 through 1972. The penicillins were intensively studied from a chemical point of view during the 1940’s and this work is discussed in detail in the penicillin monograph (36). The isolation of 6-aminopenicillanic acid in 1959 (16) led to the preparation of large numbers of penicillin derivatives in which the side chain at the 6-position of the penicillanic acid nucleus was modified. These efforts, which have been successful in introducing a number of important changes in the biological properties of the penicillin molecule, have been reviewed by PRICE (144) and others (55, 175, 72, 145, 2, 91). This aspect of penicillin chemistry will be dealt with only briefly in this review, and then only with reference to the chemistry involved. Recently, and particularly during the last four years (1969 through 1972), there have been increasing numbers of reports in which the chemistry of the penicillanic acid nucleus itself has been investigated, and it is principally to these studies that this review will address itself (see also 81, 129, 130, and 66).