Elaiophylins belong to a special family of 16-membered macrodiolides with C-symmetry. They have exhibited remarkable biological activities, such as antimicrobial, anthelmintic, anticancer, immunosuppressive, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities. A member of elaiophylins, efomycin M, is as a specific small molecule inhibitor of selectin in preclinical trial for the treatment of psoriasis, ischemia-reperfusion, and allergy. The biosynthetic investigation of elaiophylins has uncovered a unique thioesterase, which is responsible for the formation of C-symmetric diolide. We herein summarize the natural occurrence, bioactivity, and biosynthesis of elaiophylins covering the literatures from 1959 to 2019. Hopefully, this review will inspire further research interests of these compounds and encourage the discovery of new analogues by metabolic engineering or genome mining.
