Zinc pyrithione and copper pyrithione are highly evaluated in the market
as an antidandruff agent for shampoo, or an antifouling agent for ship
bottom paint and fish-farming net, or an antibacterial/antifungal agent
or preservative/mildewcide for industrial products and household
articles. For enhancing the market value thereof, there has been a demand
for a product that not only attains an increase in conventional
antibacterial/antifungal effects but also exhibits novel bioactive
effects and that achieves improvement with respect to problems and
drawbacks relating to properties, such as solubility in seawater, and
stability, such as thermal stability and weather resistance, of polymer
materials. There is provided a novel pyrithione complex compound obtained
by converting the conventional pyrithione metal salt to a complex
compound with an oxide or hydroxide of metal such as zinc, copper or
aluminum. As compared with the conventional pyrithione metal salt, this
complex compound exhibits superior antibacterial/antifungal effects,
newly realizes a hair-regrowing effect and successfully attains
improvement with respect to the solubility in seawater and thermal
stability/weather resistance of polymer materials.