Clavulanic acid: A review

Natural antibiotics are almost universal secondary metabolites, not essential for the growth of the producing organisms generally produced at low growth rates or after growth has ceased. Clavulanic acid (CA), a naturally occurring powerful inhibitor of bacterial β-lactamases is a major β-lactam antibiotic produced by organism Streptomyces clavuligerus and is active against a wide spectrum of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The review discusses the biosynthetic pathway, fermentative production, downstream processing and applications of CA.