Naturally Derived Fatty Acid Based Antibacterial Agents

Fatty acids are naturally abundant molecules with wide-spectrum of biological activities. Even though fatty acids had been known for their antimicrobial properties for a long time, they have not been exploited as antimicrobial agents to treat infectious diseases in humans and animals. The effort to come up with fatty acid based antimicrobial agents faded away with the introduction of effective antibiotics that can treat and prevent infectious diseases. However, with the alarming and rapid bacterial resistance development against many antibiotics, there is considerable interest to design and develop fatty acid based antimicrobial agents. In this chapter the antibacterial properties of the common free fatty acids and their monoglycerides as well as chemically modified fatty acid derivatives will be presented. The chapter will mainly focus on the recent research efforts made to develop fatty acid based antibacterial agents against the medically relevant and drug-resistant bacterial pathogens. The intention is to update the reader on the recently reported antibacterial properties of fatty acids and to stimulate further research in utilizing fatty acids as renewable starting materials to develop antibacterial agents through chemical transformations.