It is produced by the strain of Streptomyces griseoruber. It is a quinone antibiotic. It has anti-gram-positive bacteria, negative bacterium, mycobacterium and yeast fungus activity (MIC is 0.031-3.2 μg/mL). 0.8 μg/mL of Hedamycin can inhibit Tetrahymena pyriformis. It also can inhibit rat duodenum adenocarcinoma, rats Walker 256 tumor (50 μg/kg/day), HeLa cell(IG50 is 0.00013 μg/mL), e. coli lysogenic W1709 (λ) phage (MIC is 0.0125 μg/mL).