Efficacy of bleomycin in the protection of rice sheath blight disease.

In the course of screening against Pellicularia sasakii, a fermentation broth of E327, a species of Streptomyces, was found to be effective against rice sheath blight disease. The active substances resembled the bleomycin group by thin-layer chromatography and were purified by methods reported for these antibiotics1}, using activated charcoal instead of alumina. Five antibiotics were separated and identified as bleomycin A5,