Arsphenamine, also known as salvarsan, is a pioneering chemotherapeutic agent developed in the early 20th century for the treatment of syphilis. It was a significant milestone in the history of chemotherapy and antimicrobial discovery, marking the first successful use of a synthetic compound to treat an infectious disease. Arsphenamine was the result of extensive research by the German scientist Paul Ehrlich, who sought to find a 'magic bullet' - a compound that could selectively target and kill the syphilis-causing bacterium Treponema pallidum without harming the host. This breakthrough represented a shift from traditional reliance on natural products towards the development of rationally designed synthetic drugs.
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