Antimycobacterial activity of fusaric acid from a mangrove endophyte and its metal complexes

Due to the increasing prevalence of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis, there is an urgent need for new antituberculosis drugs that have novel mechanisms of action. As part of our ongoing search for antimycobacterial metabolites from mangrove endophytes, chemical analysis of the active extract of a strain of Fusarium sp. was performed, which led to the isolation of fusaric acid as the predominant constituent. A variety of metal complexes of fusaric acid were prepared. Antimycobacterial assays showed that Cadmium (II) and Copper (II) complexes exhibited potent inhibitory activity against the M. bovis BCG strain [minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) = 4 μg/mL] and the M. tuberculosis H37Rv strain (MIC = 10 μg/mL), respectively. This is the first report of the antimycobacterial activity of the mangrove Fusarium metabolite and its coordinating metal complexes.