Clavulanic Acid

**Definition:** A beta-lactam antibiotic produced by the actinobacterium Streptomyces clavuligerus. It is a suicide inhibitor of bacterial beta-lactamase enzymes. Administered alone, it has only weak antibacterial activity against most organisms, but given in combination with other beta-lactam antibiotics it prevents antibiotic inactivation by microbial lactamase.

**Tree numbers:** - D02.065.589.099.374.160 - D03.633.100.300.374.160