Wei-Ming Chai, Xuan Liu, Yong-Hua Hu, Hui-Ling Feng, Yu-Long Jia, Yun-Ji Guo,Han-Tao Zhou, Qing-Xi Chen.PInternational Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 2013.57: 151-155.

The inhibitory kinetics of furfuryl alcohol, furfural and furoic acid on mushroom tyrosinase have beeninvestigated. The results showed that these furan compounds were reversible inhibitors of the enzyme.Furthermore, furfuryl alcohol and furfural were found to be mixed-type inhibitors while furoic acid isuncompetitive inhibitor. The inhibition constants have been confirmed and the order of the inhibitingability was furfural > furoic acid > furfuryl alcohol. They indicate that the functional groups on the furanring play a crucial role in the inhibition on the enzyme. In addition, it was also found that these furancompounds could inhibit the proliferation of Salmonella bacteria and Bacillus subtilis to different extents.The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of furfuryl alcohol, furfural and furoic acid againstB. subtilis and S. bacteria were 0.115, 0.027, 0.015 and 0.115, 0.029, 0.009 _M, respectively. The minimumbactericidal concentration (MBC) values of that were 0.115, 0.027, 0.015 and 0.231, 0.121, 0.030 _M,respectively.