Recycling HPLC of<u>p</u>-Bromophenacyl Esters of Saturated C35–56Fatty Acids fromMycobacterium TuberculosisH37Ra on a Silica Column

The p-bromophenacyl esters of saturated C35–56 fatty acids from Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra were separated according to structural classes on a silica column by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The sample was cycled five times during HPLC. Highly purified C35–38 esters were obtained by this method. Further HPLC fractionation on a reverse-phase column (C18-bonded silica) gave complete separation of most of the remaining fractions. By combining mass spectrometry with HPLC separations, many of the fatty acid esters were tentatively identified.