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The Action of Urea and Some of Its Derivatives on Bacteria¹

III. The Effect of Combining Urea or Urethane with Penicillin on Mixed Cultures of Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative Bacteria

From the Evans Memorial, Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals, and the Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts

Abstract

Combination of non-bacteriostatic quantities of urea and urethane with penicillin did not alter the activity of the carbamate compounds. When the amount of either carbamate was increased to the point where it inhibited completely the growth of E. coli, the addition of penicillin did not decrease the antibacterial effect. Mixtures of amounts of urea or urethane bacteriostatic for E. coli with a quantity of penicillin just necessary to suppress the multiplication of S. aureus resulted in complete suppression of the growth of cultures containing both organisms. No evidence could be obtained indicating inactivation of either of the carbamates by penicillin or of a decrease in the anti-microbial properties of the antibiotic agent by urea or urethane.

The experiments reported here demonstrated the highly bacteriostatic activity resulting from the addition of adequate amounts of penicillin to bacteriostatic quantities of urea or urethane, without inactivation of any of the constituents of the mixture. The use of such combinations in the treatment of wound-infections would appear to be desirable and practical in order to produce eradication of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria simultaneously, and to prevent any inactivation of penicillin that might result from the presence of organisms such as E. coli. From the data cited above, and those presented in a previous paper on the antibacterial effects of combinations of sulfonamide with urea or urethane, it would appear that mixtures of penicillin plus urethane are preferable to those containing sulfonamide and ethyl carbamate in the treatment of wound-infections.

Footnotes

¹ This study was aided by a grant from the Johnson Research Foundation, New Brunswick, New Jersey.