Cardanol finds use in the chemical industry in resins, coatings, frictional materials, and surfactants used as pigment dispersants for water-based inks.

It is used to make phenalkamines, which are used as curing agents for the durable epoxy coatings used on concrete floors.

[3] The name cardanol is used for the decarboxylated derivatives obtained by thermal decomposition of any of the naturally occurring anacardic acids.

Cardanol is hydrophobic and remains flexible and liquid at very low temperatures;[5] its freezing point is below −20 °C, it has a density of 0.930 g/mL, and boils at 225 °C under reduced pressure (10 mmHg).

Recently, it has been demonstrated that cardanol can be used for formation of eco-design of biobased polymeric microcapsules for pesticidal applications with potential to further extended for drugs, self-healing agents, catalysts, etc.