Coffee: A Rich Source of Antimicrobial and Antiviral Compounds

Background: Coffee intake represents an essential tradition in many people's lives all around the world: the success of this beverage is mainly due to its unique flavour and its well-known characteristic of reducing sleep. Coffee is usually associated with caffeine, nevertheless, hundreds of other molecules are involved in the very heterogeneous composition of the beans. Many studies revealed that several of these compounds can influence our health, because of their bioactive activities. Coffee appears as an antioxidant, antidiabetic, anticancer, and antidepressant agent and the data about these properties have been already reviewed. Conclusion: In the present work, the antimicrobial and the antiviral activities will be discussed. Attention will also be focused on single compounds present in beans: some coffee constituents appear as valid candidates to develop new efficient drugs and the available data show that more efforts are needed to fully investigate the potential of coffee against pathogens.