AMOXICILLIN: A BROAD SPECTRUM ANTIBIOTIC

Amoxicillin though originally introduced in the early 1970’s for oral use in U.K., has found a gradually regular place as broad spectrum antibacterial to treat the infections of various diseases. Amoxicillin has been found to be more effective against gram positive than gram negative micro‐ organisms and demonstrated greater efficacy to penicillin and penicillin V. Moreover, it has been found comparable to other antibiotics, e.g. ampicillin, azithromycin, clarithromycin, cefuroxime and doxycycline in treatment of various infections/ diseases. In the past decade, amoxicillin has been reported to be useful in the management of many indications and is used to treat infections of the middle ear (otitis media) , tonsils (tonsillitis & tonsillopharyngitis), throat, larynx (laryngitis) , pharynx (pharyngitis), bronchi (bronchitis), lungs (pneumonia), urinary tract (UTI), skin and to treat gonorrhoea. Recent studies suggested that it can be used as prophylaxis against bacterial endocarditis, in patients with prosthetic joint replacements and in dentistry. The renewed interest of the molecule has prompted a review of the salient facets of the drug.