In vitro antifungal studies of Ruthenium (III) complex derived from chitosan Schiff bases

Abstract

The complex formation property is one of the versatile natures of chitosan Schiff base; this has been achieved by chemical modification of chitosan with various aldehydes. The vanillin, salicylaldehyde and ortho vanillin were used for chemical modification through a condensation reaction with chitosan. The primary amino group (–NH2) in chitosan biopolymer molecule readily react with an aldehyde (–CHO) to form Schiff base (imine). The chitosan Schiff base becomes a complexing agent or ligand containing azomethine group which is the yardstick for complex formation with metal ions. The Ruthenium (III) complexes were obtained by complexation of Ruthenium metal ion with Schiff base ligands. Ruthenium (III) complexes were screened by Scanning Electron Microscope with Electron Dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDAX) analysis. The newly synthesized chitosan Schiff base Ruthenium (III) complexes were administered for antifungal study by disc diffusion method. The antifungal results showed that the synthesized metal complexes having significant antifungal activities against fungal pathogens.