The first chemotherapeutic agent scientifically discovered and evaluated was:

• A. Sulfonamide
• B. Salvarsan
• C. Penicillin
• D. All of the above

Answer: (B)

The first chemotherapeutic agent discovered and evaluated scientifically is salvarsan. Paul Ehrlich and his team developed arsphenamine (salvarsan) around 1909 as the first chemical tested in humans to treat an infectious disease, syphilis. This work launched the era of chemotherapy by showing that a compound could selectively affect a pathogen and be evaluated through systematic, controlled testing in patients, not just observed cases. It introduced the idea of a “magic bullet”—a drug designed to target the microbe with manageable harm to the host.

Sulfonamides came later (in the 1930s) as the first widely used synthetic antibiotics, building on the chemo‑prophylaxis concept but not the very first instance. Penicillin, discovered by Fleming in 1928, was a landmark and eventually transformed medicine, but its clinical use and proof of effectiveness followed after salvarsan’s initial demonstration. So salvarsan stands as the earliest chemotherapeutic agent that was discovered and subjected to scientific evaluation.