Frog skin is known to have plenty of potent germ-fighting compounds because of the hostile surroundings they inhabit. But these substances are often poisonous to humans.
Now a team at the United Arab Emirates University have thought up a way of altering the chemicals to remove their toxicity, the Telegraph reported.
The findings were presented at the American Chemical Society conference in Boston.
They have already identified 100 new antibiotics, including one that could fight the hospital superbug Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria.
Frog skin is an excellent potential source of such antibiotic agents," said Michael Conlon, biochemist at the university in Abu Dhabi.
"They've been around 300 million years, so they've had plenty of time to learn how to defend themselves against disease-causing microbes in the environment," he said.
"Their own environment includes polluted waterways where strong defences against pathogens are a must," he added.
Published 27 August 2010, 06:16 IST