TOTAL SYNTHESIS OF MITOMYCINS

It was 1956 when Hata and his co-workers at Kyowa Hakko Company first succeeded in the isolation of two new antibiotics, mitomycins A and B. from a culture broth of Streptomyces caesipitosus (1). It soon became evident that the mitomycins were active against gram positive and gram negative bacteria, and also against several kinds of tumor cells in both animals and humans. Wakaki and his co-workers at Ixyowa Hakko later isolated the third member of this antibiotic group, mitomycin C, from the same Streptomyces strain (2). Mitomycin C was shown to have the strongest and broadest activity against tumors and has been used in cancer chemotherapy. © 1979, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.