ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF CASHEW APPLE FLAVOR COMPOUNDS

The antimicrobial activity of the 10 most abundant flavor compounds of the cashew Anacardium occidentale (Anacardiaceae) apple has been test ed. Most of them exhibited some activity against one or more of 14 mic roorganisms. Noticeably, (E)-2-hexenal showed activity against all of the microorganisms tested, including Gram-negative bacteria. In additi on, the antibacterial activity of indole against Escherichia coli was enhanced 4-fold by combining it with a sublethal amount of (E)-2-hexen al. Furthermore, the minimum inhibitory concentration of this combinat ion was found to be bactericidal by the time-kill curve method.