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Abstract
SUMMARY: Ten antibiotics have been included in this study; eight of them were metabolic products of fungi isolated from soils of the Bagshot Sand type. Their stability in Bagshot Sand soils and in a neutral garden loam has been investigated. Some were more stable than others, the rate of inactivation varied from soil to soil, but all exhibited a fair degree of stability in some of the soils. Four types of inactivation could be distinguished: (1) The natural pH of the soil was sometimes that at which the antibiotic was intrinsical unstable; this was noted specially with albidin, frequentin, gliotoxin, penicillin and viridin. (2) Inactivation caused by some form of biological activity, indicated by less rapid inactivation in heattreated than in untreated soil, was observed with griseofulvin, mycophenolic acid and patulin. (3) Adsorption on the soil was noticeable only in the case of streptomycin, the only basic antibiotic studied: acid-washed sand was able to bind appreciable quantities of this antibiotic, (4) Some other form of inactivation, probably chemical in nature, was concerned in the inactivation of gladiolic acid, penicillin and streptomycin.
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