Sucrose monolaurate is a non-ionic detergent for the solubilization of membrane proteins as has been observed in the removal of β-adrenergic receptors from turkey erythrocyte membranes and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors from porcine atria. The compound has demonstrated that at a concentration of 100 μg/ml to retard the replication of Listeria monocytogenesand has been lethal at 400μg/ml during the logarithmic growth phase.