Metal‐based sulfonamides: synthesis,characterization, antibacterial,antifungal and cytotoxic properties of pyrrolyl‐ and thienyl‐derived compounds

Pyrrolyl and thienyl derived sulfonamides and their metal cobalt(II), copper(II), nickel(II) and zinc(II)] complexes were synthesized and characterized by elemental analyses, molar conductances, magnetic moments, IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and electronic spectral data. These compounds were screened for in‐vitro antibacterial activity against four Gram‐negative (Escherichia coli, Shigella flexeneri, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella typhi) and two Gram‐positive (Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus) bacterial strains, and for in‐vitro antifungal activity against Trichophyton longifusus, Candida albicans, Aspergillus flavus, Microsporum canis, Fusarium solani and Candida glaberata. The results of these studies revealed that all compounds showed significant to moderate antibacterial activity; however, the zinc complexes were shown to be the most active against various species. The brine shrimp bioassay was also carried out to study their in vitro cytotoxic properties of all the synthesized ligands and their metal complexes. Only two compounds ( 14 and 19 ) displayed potent cytotoxic activity as LD₅₀ = 5.5637 × 10^?4 and 4.4023 × 10^?4 M ml^?1 respectively, against Artemia salina. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.