What makes an antibiotic? what's the definition?

Question

my dictionary says "chemicals that kill bacteria"

but detergents kill bacteria too, and yet they are not commonly called antibiotic..

Answer 1

i think antibiotics are used for killing bacteria in living tissues but detergents are used for killing bacterias outside living tissues.  also, detergents often have some sort of bleach and used for cleaning. In other words, not for human consumption.

sorry there isn't much scientific input but i hope this helps a little.

Answer 2

all the following kill bacteria

1 antibiotics [kill inside living tissues]

2 antiseptics [kill bacteria on skin]

3 disinfectant [kill bacteria on inanimate objects]

4 detergents [kill bateria on inanimate objects] and composed of disinfectant+oxidants+surfactant

N.B

inanimate = non living

not all antibiotics kill bacteria , some just arrest growth

Answer 3

An antibiotic is generally a protein which is capable of dsetructing an invading foreign antigen. It is usually derived from another organism.

It can be a purified antibody.

Here is a simple method for you to understand how an antibody is produced. Take a test animal and inject the antigen or the disease causing microbe into it. After a certain period of incubation time, the serum of the infected animal is found to contain antibodies which have been produced in the due course to resist the action of antigens. These antibodies can be purified and can be used as antibiotics.

Other antibiotics are avirulent microbes, heat killed microbes etc.

I hope this clarifies your query.