New iodophors are provided which exhibit effective degerming of skin, mucous membranes of animals and surfaces of inanimate objects and which provide broad spectrum microbicidal action without toxicity or irritation. The iodophors of the invention are complexes of iodine with polydextrose or with the polymer resulting from the copolymerization of sucrose and epichlorohydrin. The invention further relates to germicidal compositions containing such complexes and to methods of producing the complexes.