Abstract
Cephalosporins belonging to a large family of beta-lactam antibiotics gained an important place in the therapy of bacterial infections in the last decade. They are one of the largest group of antibiotics in general, they became easily accessible and they are used both in clinical and general practise.
The first compound of this type was discovered in a sewer estuary by Giuseppe Brotsu, the Italian profesor of bacteriology of Cagliary, Sardinia, in 1945. He found that it was a product of the fungus Cefalosporinum acremonium that even in a raw state inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus in vitro.