In organosulfur chemistry, a mesylate is any salt or ester of methanesulfonic acid (CH3SO3H). In salts, the mesylate is present as the CH3SO−3 anion. When modifying the international nonproprietary name of a pharmaceutical substance containing the group or anion, the spelling used is sometimes mesilate (as in imatinib mesilate, the mesylate salt of imatinib).[1]
Mesylate esters are a group of organic compounds that share a common functional group with the general structure CH3SO2O−R, abbreviated MsO−R, where R is an organic substituent. Mesylate is considered a leaving group in nucleophilic substitution reactions.[2]