Abstract:
Mycolic acids (Scheme 1) are major constituents of the cell envelope of Mycobacterium
tuberculosis and other mycobacteria, some of which are pathogenic to animals and
humans.1 and 2 Their presence is thought to be linked with the resistance of these
organisms to most current antibiotics and other chemotherapeutic agents.3 Mycolic acids
can be divided into two parts, meromycolate and mycolic motif (Scheme 1). The latter is
common to each mycobacterial mycolic acid, except for minor variations in the length of
the chain(d)
