Hamycin, a polyene antifungal antibiotic, was isolated by use of countercurrent distribution. A pattern was obtained by plotting the absorption at 383 mμ of the contents of the various tubes against the tube numbers. The results indicated that the antibiotic contained three fractions, a major fraction (peak 2) comprising 48% of the total activity and two minor fractions (peak 1 and peak 3) comprising 3.62 and 11.32%, respectively, of the total activity. The solid material was isolated by pooling the contents of the tubes containing the major fraction, concentrating this in vacuo, and cooling. The antibiotic activities of the three peaks were evaluated by use of a cup-plate assay method with Paecilomyces varioti as test organism. All three components showed antibiotic activity; however, the preparation obtained from the major fraction showed approximately a 7-fold increase in antibiotic activity, a doubling of the E1cm1% value at 383 mμ, and approximately a 2.5-fold decrease in the amino acid content in comparison with the starting material. There was an apparent correlation obtained by plotting the curves of the absorption at 383 mμ of the different tubes comprising the major fraction and their biological activities.
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