SUMMARY: Haematin in concentrations of 1/1,000,000 1/2,000,000 inhibited the growth of a number of bacteria most of which were aerobic sporing bacilli. Deuterohaematin and mesohaematin were also inhibitory, but not haematohaematin, urohaematin and a number of iron-free porphyrin derivatives. In a few cases whole blood was inhibitory, but generally only trypsin-digested laked red cells. The mechanism of the antibacterial activity is not understood.
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W. E. van Heyningen (1951) studied this question.
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