ABSTRACT
The lipids of the trypanosomatids are increasingly being viewed as targets for exploitation, both in respect of chemotaxonomy and chemotherapy. They present a diverse and plentiful system which may easily be analysed and manipulated towards those ends. The following account is a class by class review of the lipids of these flagellates, with emphasis on the sterols, as these are becoming a major focus of interest. In many cases, data are available for one form of a parasite only. For instance, most data for Leishmania species come from analyses of multiplicative promastigotes; little is known about amastigotes and metacyclics. The extent of variation of lipids during the life cycle is yet to be determined for most protozoa.
