The Important Nutritional and Wonderful Health Benefits of Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.)

Traditional medicines are considered as both food items and medicine, which have been used for thousands of years. They contain aerial and underground parts of plants as active ingredients, and they also contain a variety of pharmacologically active plant constituents. The aim of this study was to summarize and highlight the most important traditional and modern health benefits of cashew nuts. The literature search was conducted in PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Medline and Google Scholar databases. The main compounds of cashew nuts are β-phellandrene + limonene, methyl chavicol, germacrene D, germacrene B, trans-α-bergamotene, β-copaene, linalool, α-cadinol, β-phellandrene, β-caryophyllene, β-bisabolene, 9-epi-(E)-caryophyllene, α-phellandrene, epi-α- cadinol, hexadecanoic acid, and epi-α-muurolol. The most important pharmacological benefits of Anacardium occidentale are anti-bacterial activities, anti-diabetic activities, anti-diarrheal activities, anti-fungal activities, anti-hyperglycemic activities, anti-inflammatory activities, anti-microbial activities, anti-oxidant activities, anti-tumor activities, insecticidal activities, and wound healing. Cashew nut is a high potential natural functional food because of its high pharmacological activities and it being an efficacious natural drug.