Six organotin(IV) compounds with general formulae R 3SnL, R = Me ( 2), Ph ( 6), R 2SnL 2, R = Me ( 1), Et ( 3), n-Oct ( 5), [((R 2SnL) 2O) 2], R = Bu ( 4), L = 6-nitropiperonylate, have been prepared. The newly synthesized compounds have been characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR and multinuclear NMR ( 1H, 13C and 119 Sn). The structure of 4 has been determined by single crystal X-ray crystallography which is triclinic with the space group P 1 ¯ . The crystal structure contains centrosymmetric dimer distannoxane with planar central four-membered Sn 2O 2 core. The 6-nitropiperonylate ligand shows different modes of coordination with Sn, as a result the central Sn 2O 2 core is fused with two four-membered (Sn(1)–O(1)–Sn(2)–O(13)) and two six-membered (Sn(1)–O(13)–Sn(2)–O(8)–C(9)–O(7)) rings. The endocyclic Sn(2) is six coordinated in a skew trapezoidal bipyramidal environment while exocyclic Sn(1) is five coordinated with distorted trigonal bipyramidal geometry. The ligand acid and synthesized organotin compounds were also screened for antibacterial, antifungal, brine-shrimp lethality and potato disc antitumor activities. Results of bioassay demonstrate that organotin derivatives are in general more active than the ligand acid.