In the cashew nut shell, cashew nut shell liquid occurs mainly as
anacardic acid (~90%) and cardol around slightly lower than 10%.
Reducing effect of dietary
anacardic acid on body fat pads in rats.
(20) The primary component of cashew nut liquid is
anacardic acid, which can be converted to cardanol by thermal decarboxylation.
This oil is mainly composed of
anacardic acid (3-n-pentadecylsalicylic acid), cardanol (3-n-pentadecylphenol), cardol (5-n pentadecylresorcinol), and methylcardol (2-methyl-5-npentadecylresorcinol).
In fact, it is known to contain a significant amount of
anacardic acid which is active against gram-positive bacteria (KUBO et al., 1993).
[11] revealed the effect of phytochemical and the antimicrobial activity of
anacardic acid which had an inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus aureus, Brevibacterium ammoniagenes, Streptococcus mutans, and Propionibacterium acnes.
Reddy, "Synthesis of isonicotinoylhydrazones from
anacardic acid and their in vitro activity against Mycobacterium smegmatis" European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, vol.
Anacardic acid, a histone acetyltransferase inhibitor, modulates LPS-induced IL-8 expression in a human alveolar epithelial cell line A549 [v1; ref status: indexed, http://f1000r.es/o7]
Many acids like formic acid, butyric acid,
anacardic acid, acetic acid and hydrochloric acid are found effective in controlling avian coccidiosis (Shobha and Ravindranath, 1991; Garcia et al., 2007; Abbas et al., 2011b, c).
It also acts as an astringent and cauterizing agent due to the phenolic skin stimulant (
anacardic acid) found mostly in the skin of the fruit, but also in the fruit itself [6].