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Fatty acids are important constituents of plants and are commonly known to possess antimicrobial activities. The structure-activity relationship of fatty acids, including the effects of hydrocarbon chain length, unsaturation and presence of functional groups, is reviewed. The biological activity of fatty acids is significant as they are often isolated following bioassay-guided fractionation of plant extracts. The possibility of the therapeutic use of fatty acids as antimicrobial agents is worthy of note.
McGaw et al. (2002) studied this question.