Syntheses, physicochemical characterization, antibacterial studies on potassium morpholine dithiocarbamate nickel (II), copper (II) metal complexes and their ligands

Abstract Organic molecule dithiocarbamate transition metal complexes are novel and very attractive pharmaceutical targets for the management and control of antibiotic resistant bacteria. The direct reaction has synthesized new transition metal nickel (II), copper (II) complexes of potassium morpholine dithiocarbamate (K + C 5 H 8 NOS 2 − ) ligands and characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), as well as NMR physicochemical techniques. Antibacterial bioefficacy of the ligand and its metal complexes has been investigated in vitro on the growth of Gram-positive ( Staphylococcus aureus MTCC 737, Bacillus cereus MTCC 1272) and the Gram-negative ( Listeria monocytogenes MTCC 657, Shigella flexeneri MTCC 1457) bacteria. The obtained electronic spectral bands are characteristic and consistent with the proposed composition of the ligand as well as its metal complexes. It also provides a further example of the bidentate coordination of dithiocarbamate ligands. Absorption peak values of FTIR are characteristic of the ligand as well as dithiocarbamate group molecules and exhibit their metal coordination. NMR 1 H signal variations also correlate with the coordination mediated chemical shifts. Both the metal complexes showed significant antibacterial activity. However, enhanced antimicrobial activity of the ligands than metal complexes against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria were observed. Thus, further study on this approach could pave a way for the development of dithiocarbamate-metal complex based antibacterial agent.