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Tests of Some Methods for Detecting Antibiotics in Soil¹

ABSTRACT

Various methods of testing soils for antibiotics were compared using soils to which antibacterial substances (penicillin, streptomycin, chloramphenicol) or antifungal substances (cycloheximide, candicidin, nystatin) had been added. Chloramphenicol, penicillin, and cycloheximide could be tested by direct diffusion from soil through a cellulose film into assay agar. All of the antibiotics could be determined in soil-agar mixtures. Whith this method, some antibiotics were more active in nearly neutral media than in acid media. The antifungal antibiotics and streptomycin showed decreasing activity against certain test organisms with an increase in the amount of colloidal material in the soil. There was little or no such effect with chloramphenicol and penicillin.

¹ Paper of the Journal Series, New Jersey Agr. Exp. Sta., Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey, Department of Agricultural Microbiology, New Brunswick, N. J.

² Research Assistant (on leave from the Institute for Biological Field Research, Arnheim, Netherlands) and Professor in Agricultural Microbiology, respectively.

Received for publication November 10, 1955.