phthioicadj.
/(f)θʌɪˈəʊɪk/, U.S. /θaɪˈoʊɪk/ Biochemistry. Now rare.
phthioic acid n. a yellowish oily mixture of fatty acids, formerly thought to be a single acid, which was originally obtained from tuberculosis bacilli and is capable of inducing some of the symptoms of tuberculosis; (in later use) any of the constituent acids of this mixture or their synthetic derivatives.
ΚΠ
1929 R. J. Anderson in Jrnl. Biol. Chem. 83 171 In order to indicate the relation of this acid to tuberculosis we wish to designate it by the name phthioic acid.
1946 Nature 5 Oct. 489/1 Phthioic acid C26H52O2, is a liquid saturated fatty acid isolated from the lipoids of tubercle bacilli.
1951 Chem. & Industry 11 Aug. 685/1 Recent work on the fatty acids of the lipins of tubercle bacilli has shown that Anderson's phthioic acid was a mixture.
1964 W. Pagel et al. Pulmonary Tuberculosis (ed. 4) ii. 31 Phthioic acids synthetized [sic] by Robinson (1946) were shown to produce necrosis and granulomata in guinea-pigs.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1929