The molecule is similar to urea but is not hydrolyzable by urease;[1] it thus disrupts the bacteria's metabolism through competitive inhibition.

When administered orally, it is metabolized to salicylamide, which exerts analgesic, antipyretic, and anti-inflammatory effects.

[citation needed] Salicylhydroxamic acid is also a common ligand utilized in the synthesis of metallacrowns.

[citation needed] In plants, some fungi and some protists with the alternative oxidase (AOX) enzyme in the mitochondrial electron transport chain system, salicylhdroxamic acid acts as an inhibitor of the enzyme, blocking the largely uninhibited flow of electrons through AOX.

The AOX pathway is found to be the exclusive electron transport pathway in Trypanosoma brucei, the organism that causes African Sleeping Sickness, meaning that SHAM completely shuts down oxygen consumption by this organism.