Chemical Modifications and Applications of Cashew Byproducts - A Selective Review

Abstract

The cashew (Anacardium occidentale) is a tropical flowering tree that generates globally over 4 million metric tons of cashew nuts a year. Although the cashew nut is the most well-known product, other byproducts can produce additional value, including cashew apples, cashew nutshell liquid, cardanol, and cashew gum. Over the years, a fair amount of R&D has been done on cashew byproducts in order to increase their value for different applications. In order to stimulate further interest in the use of these products, a selective review of the applications and chemical modifications of these byproducts has been done in this Review. A particular emphasis has been made on the recent publications by authors on cashew gum and cardanol derivatives to show how the use of specific polymer reactions (e.g., ene reaction, aminohydrin formation, amine-formaldehyde reaction, and polysaccharide ether and ester formation) and physical processes (e.g., polymer blending, complex coacervation, microencapsulation, and electrospraying) can enhance the properties of these agro-based materials.