Recent interest in the problem of antibiotic resistance has led to the identification of new targets and strategies for antibiotic discovery. Among these efforts, the development of small molecules as antibiotics to target carbohydrate receptors or carbohydrate‐modifying enzymes represents a new direction. This review covers recent work in this regard and discusses the impact of each strategy on the development of drug resistance. Particularly interesting targets include unique cell‐surface carbohydrates, the transglycosylase involved in peptidoglycan biosynthesis, and bacterial RNA. With a greater understanding of the genome of different bacteria as well as advances in functional genomics and proteomics, we can expect the discovery of a variety of targets for the development of novel antibiotics.

A continuous fluorescence coupled enzyme assay was developed to study the acceptor specificity of the glycosyltransferase MurG toward different lipid I analogues with various substituents replacing the undecaprenyl moiety. It was found that most lipid I analogues are accepted as substrates and, amongst these, the saturated C14 analogue exhibits the best activity. This substrate was used to evaluate the inhibition activity of such antibiotics as moenomycin, vancomycin, and two chlorobiphenyl vancomycin derivatives. A vancomycin derivative with a chlorobiphenyl moiety on the aglycon section was identified as a potent inhibitor of MurG.

The notoriously difficult glycosylation of vancomycin was tackled in a one‐pot procedure. A number of oligosaccharides were synthesized and attached to the vancomycin aglycon to create a library of derivatives (see formula) to probe the effect of glycosylation on the antibiotic activity.

Investigation of the benzopyranones from the roots of PELARGONIUM SIDOIDES led to the identification of 15 benzopyranones, among them the novel compounds 12 and 14. Furthermore, benzopyranones 4 and 15 were detected in PELARGONIUM SIDOIDES for the first time. Structure determinations were performed by one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy. An HPLC system for the discrimination of these benzopyranones has been developed.

Die bekannt schwierige Glycosylierung von Vancomycin wurde in einem Eintopf‐Prozess ausgeführt. Dazu wurde eine Vielzahl von Oligosacchariden synthetisiert und mit dem Aglycon von Vancomycin verknüpft (siehe Formel). Mithilfe dieser Verbindungsbibliothek wurde der Einfluss der Glycosylierung auf die antibiotische Aktivität getestet.