7-ACA

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

7-ACA (7-aminocephalosporanic acid) is the core chemical structure used to make cephalosporin antibiotics. It serves as the basic building block for many cephalosporin drugs and their intermediates. 7-ACA can be obtained from cephalosporin C by removing the side chain at position 3. There are two main production methods: enzymatic hydrolysis, which uses enzymes to cut off the side chain, and chemical cracking, which uses chemical reactions to break the molecule and release 7-ACA. Once 7-ACA is available, different side groups can be added to create various cephalosporin antibiotics.