Treatment of Primary Syphilis with Synnematin B: Report of a Case

The antibiotic synnematin, isolated by Gottshall et al.,1 is produced by the mold Cephalosporium salmosynematum. It has been separated into components A and B by Olson, Jennings, and Junek.2 Synnematin B is active primarily against Gram-negative organisms, including Salmonella, some strains of Proteus, and strains of Shigella and Neisseria. Toxicity by intramuscular injection is reportedly negligible, both in animal experiments and in clinical studies of Salmonella infections.3,4 In a recent paper presented in the Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Symposium on Antibiotics a member of the Abbott Laboratories reported that synnematin B was seven times less toxic than penicillin in animals.5 The antibiotic has not been crystallized, and all material available for use was less than 50% pure.*In a personal communication to one of us (A. H. W.)5 it was called to our attention that two cases of pinta had been cleared