A novel family of dicationic arginine-diglyceride surfactants, 1,2-diacyl-3-O-(L-arginyl)-rac-glycerol·2HCl (XXR) with alkyl chain lengths in the range of C8-C14 was prepared. These new surfactants can be regarded as analogues of lecithins. They have two hydrophobic tails of identical fatty acid chains attached to the glycerol through ester bonds and a dicationic polar head from arginine instead of the zwitterionic on the lecithins. These new compounds can be classified as multifunctional surfactants with self-aggregation behaviour comparable to that of short-chain lecithins. They have antimicrobial activity similar to that of the conventional cationic surfactants and are as harmless as amphoteric betaines.

Financial support from the Spanish CICYT ref. PPQ2000-1687-C02-01 is gratefully acknowledged.

Peer reviewed