Skip to content

kanamycin

Today it means: A broad-spectrum aminoglycoside antibiotic from a Japanese soil streptomyces (Streptomyces kanamyceticus), used to treat severe bacterial infections and tuberculosis. Full definition →

Ask AI about its historyChatGPT Claude Perplexity Google AI Grok

The story

From (Streptomyces) kana(myceticus) + -mycin (“antibiotic produced from a Streptomyces strain”). The term kanamyceticus may comes from From Japanese 金 (kana-, “metal, money”) + Ancient Greek μύκης (múkēs) + Latin -icus.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.