of It ’ s Chemistry , Environmental Fate , and Toxicology

What is Antimycin? Antimycin is the active ingredient in Fintrol, a commercial piscicide. Antimycin is a mixture of closely related molecules produced by Streptomyces bacteria. Antimycin A1 was first isolated during the 1940’s, and its molecular structure determined a few years later. Antimycin (used to refer to all of the antimycin variants collectively) is an antibiotic that was found to be a potent inhibitor of fungal growth (hence the name), while most bacteria are unaffected. Because of its antifungal properties, antimycin was of interest for potential commercial applications in agriculture. This interest led to a significant number of studies about its mechanism of action, and development of synthetic chemical approaches to prepare the compound. It wasn’t until the early ‘60’s that antimycin was found to be highly toxic to fish, which over the last 40 years has led to antimycin being used in a large number of fisheries conservation projects across the US and in New Mexico. It is also used as a commercial fish toxicant to rid catfish farms of undesirable rough fish.