Enniatins are a class of organic chemical compound

Chemical compound

A chemical compound is a pure chemical substance consisting of two or more different chemical elements that can be separated into simpler substances by chemical reactions. Chemical compounds have a unique and defined chemical structure; they consist of a fixed ratio of atoms that are held together...

s found in Fusarium

Fusarium

Fusarium is a large genus of filamentous fungi widely distributed in soil and in association with plants. Most species are harmless saprobes, and are relatively abundant members of the soil microbial community. Some species produce mycotoxins in cereal crops that can affect human and animal health...

fungi. They appear in nature as mixtures of cyclic depsipeptide

Depsipeptide

A depsipeptide is a peptide in which one or more of the amide bonds are replaced by ester bonds.Depsipeptides have often been used in research to probe the importance of hydrogen bond networks in protein folding kinetics and thermodynamics. They are also found in nature as natural products...

s. The main variants are enniatin A, A1, B and B1 together with minor amounts of enniatin C, D, E and F.

The enniatins act as ionophore

Ionophore

An ionophore is a lipid-soluble molecule usually synthesized by microorganisms to transport ions across the lipid bilayer of the cell membrane...

s, and they have been proposed as replacements for nonactin

Nonactin

Nonactin is a member of a family of naturally occurring cyclic ionophores known as the macrotetrolide antibiotics. The other members of nactins homologous family are monactin, dinactin, trinactin and tetranactin which are all neutral ionophoric substances and higher homologs of nonactin....

 in ammonium-based specific electrodes.

Enniatins have been also mentioned as potential anti-AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

drugs.