A brief review on the antimicrobial activity of transition metal complexes with N,O donor chelating ligand

Abstract

Activities of microorganisms can immensely influence our health. Our present environment is highly dominated by microorganisms and our future will also be highly impacted by their activities. We need to control microbial populations in order to prevent transmission of infections and disease, and to do that we require antimicrobial medicines. But unfortunately their drug resistance is becoming a major cause of morbidity and mortality at the present time. For this reason, we have to focus on design and development of novel antimicrobial drugs in order to control infections and diseases. Metal complexes usually contain a variety of structural and electronic features which can be exploited in designing of drugs. The metal ion and its oxidation state, as well as coordination geometries and coordination numbers can be varied. These properties allow the fine-tuning of chemical reactivity, including the rates of ligand exchange, the strength of metal–ligand bonds, metal- and ligand- based redox potentials, ligand conformations, and outer-sphere interactions. These review works depict the current studies on the antimicrobial activities of transition metal complexes with N, O donor chelating agent.