Allyl Alcohol Found in Heated Garlic is a Potent Selective Inhibitor of Yeasts

Allyl alcohol (2-propen-l-ol), found in considerable amounts in heated garlic, was able to discriminate yeasts from bacteria and was approximately three orders of magnitude more inhibitory towards yeasts than bacteria. The average minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of allyl alcohol for bacteria and yeasts was 5.0% and 0.0056%, respectively. The unsaturated primary alcohols, including allyl alcohol and 2-buten-l-ol, seemed to work differently from all the other saturated alcohols and unsaturated secondary alcohols in inhibiting various yeasts. An alcohol dehydrogenase-negative (ADH$^-$) strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was as resistant to allyl alcohol as various bacteria, exhibiting an MIC of 5.0%. The unsaturated primary alcohols were apparently oxidized into the corresponding unsaturated aldehydes before they inhibited the yeasts.