Whey-derived free fatty acids suppress the germination of Candida albicans in vitro

Bovine whey from the cheese-making industry contains several bioactive factors that promote health and prevent disease. Although many efforts have been made over the years to show that immunoglobulins, lactoperoxidase, lactoferrin, lysosyme and small peptides present in whey have antimicrobial activities against several pathogenic microorganisms, such activities have not been investigated so far for the lipid fraction of whey. Here, we have used an in vitro assay-based fractionation procedure to show that free fatty acids derived from whey cream specifically inhibit the germination of Candida albicans, a morphologic change associated with pathogenicity. Further fractionation by HPLC demonstrated that this activity can be mainly attributed to lauric acid, myristoleic acid, linoleic acid and arachidonic acid.