Antifungal activity of hexanal as dependent on its vapor pressure

Hexanal was taken as a model molecule to study the relationship between the antifungal activity of a volatile compound and its vapor pressure. A Central Composite Design (3 variables, 5 levels) was developed in order to modulate the hexanal vapor pressure and evaluate the effect of water activity (a(w)), temperature and hexanal dose on the inhibition of the growth of Aspergillus niger as well as the changes of the hexanal vapor pressure during incubation in model systems. The different indices taken into consideration evidenced the importance of the hexanal vapor pressure for its bioactivity against the mold. Moreover, the temperature increase enhanced the hexanal antifungal activity, due to its effect on-vapor pressure. This indirect effect of temperature sustained the assumption that the volatile molecule effectiveness depends on the vapor pressure.