Máté Levente Kis

1 Introduction The natural polyether ionophores (PIs) are large group of compounds with pronounced antiparasitic properties against coccidiosis, considered the most costly intestinal disease of poultry. Today, among the over 120 identified structures of PIs, only a few are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an integral part of an animal health and welfare program: lasalocid, monensin, laidlomycin, salinomycin, narasin, semduramycin, and maduramycin [1].

1. Introduction The polyether ionophore monensin (monensic acid, MonH) discovered by Agtarap [1] is a well-known natural veterinary drug produced by Streptomyces cinnamonensis that prevents Eimeria coccidiosis in livestock [2]. Monensin was a target of numerous applied research [3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. In addition, it exhibits various antibacterial [10,11,12,13,14,15] and antiviral [16,17,18] activity. In some recent publications, its potential as an antitumor agent [19,20] was explored.