Hydramycin, a new antitumor antibiotic. Taxonomy, isolation, physico-chemical properties, structure and biological activity.

A new antitumor antibiotic hydramycin was isolated from the fermentation broth of Streptomyces violaceus P950-4 (ATCC 53807). It showed potent antibacterial and cytotoxic activity and increased the survival time of mice inoculated with P388 leukemia. A new structure related to the pluramycin group antibiotics was assigned by its spectroscopic experiments.