Design,synthesis, characterization and antibacterial properties of copper(II) complexes with chromone‐derived compounds

A new series of six chromone‐derived compounds and their Cu(II) complexes was synthesized and characterized by their physical, spectral and analytical data The elemental analysis data of the complexes agree well with the proposed composition of the compounds, which were found to be dimeric in nature with two hydrazine molecules bridging the two copper atoms through coordination. The ligands and their Cu(II) complexes were screened for their in‐vitro antibacterial activity against four Gram‐negative (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, Shigella flexneri) and two Gram‐positive (Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus) bacterial strains by the agar‐well diffusion method. The ligands were found to exhibit either no or low to moderate activities against one or more of the bacterial species, whereas all the metal complexes exhibited moderate to high activities against different bacterial species. The ligands which were inactive before complexation turned active and less active ones became more active upon coordination with copper ions. Overall, the complexes 7–12 showed comparatively much higher activities than the ligands. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.