The history of antimicrobials begins with the observations of Pasteur and Koch, who discovered that one type of bacteria could prevent the growth of another. They did not know at that time that the reason one bacterium failed to grow was that the other bacterium was producing an antibiotic. Technically, antibiotics are only those substances that are produced by one microorganism that kill, or prevent the growth, of another microorganism.
The discovery of antimicrobials like penicillin by Alexander Fleming and tetracycline paved the way for better health for millions around the world. Before penicillin became a viable medical treatment in the early 1940s, no true cure for gonorrhea, strep throat, or pneumonia existed. Patients with infected wounds often had to have a wounded limb removed, or face death from infection. Now, most of these infections can be cured easily with a short course of antimicrobials.
Alexander Fleming
In 1928 Alexander Fleming observed antibiosis against bacteria by a fungus of the genus Penicillium and postulated the effect was mediated by an antibacterial compound, penicillin, and that its antibacterial properties could be exploited for chemotherapy.
The term antibiotic was first used in 1942 by Selman Waksman and his collaborators in journal articles to describe any substance produced by a microorganism that is antagonistic to the growth of other microorganisms in high dilution. This definition excluded substances that kill bacteria, but are not produced by microorganisms (such as gastric juices and hydrogen peroxide). It also excluded synthetic antibacterial compounds such as the sulfonamides. Many antibacterial compounds are relatively small molecules with a molecular weight of less than 2000 atomic mass units. With advances in medicinal chemistry, most of today's antibacterials chemically are semisynthetic modifications of various natural compounds.