New antibiotic, isohematinic acid. I. Taxonomy of producing organism, fermentation and isolation.

New antibiotic, isohematinic acid, was found in the culture broth of an actinomycete strain SANK 61681, which was identified as a strain of Actinoplanes philippinesis. Fermentation of isohematinic acid was performed by conventional submerged culture in a 600-liter fermentor. Isolation of isohematinic acid was performed by adsorption of the antibiotic from the culture filtrate on a column of Diaion HP-20 followed by elution with aqueous acetone and extraction with ethyl acetate. Isohematinic acid was finally crystallized from hot methanol.