Abstract

The antimicrobial activity of some novel ascorbic acid-metal complexes
[bisascorbate complexes of copper (II), zinc(II), manganese (11), iron (111),
cobalt(II), lead(II) and cadmium(II)] was investigated. Four standard strains of
bacterial species - Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis
and Klebsiella pneumonia and four fungal species - Trichophyton sp.
Penicillium sp., Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus niger were used for the
investigation. The activities of pure ascorbic acid are compared with the
complexes. Generally, percentage inhibition of ascorbic acid on fungal species
was the greatest among all compounds tested. The complexes have little or no
activity on the bacterial species studied. The latter suggests that ascorbic acid
complexation can perhaps be a possible mechanism for the prevention of heavy
metal poisoning in biological systems