Antibacterial Activity of a Kind of Novel Schiff Base and Its 3d,4f Complexes

The microcalorimetric method was used to study the antibacterial activity on the bacteria's multiplying metabolism and the non-multiplying metabolism. The metabolism thermogenic curves of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), under the action of the synthesized Schiff base and its 3d,4f complexes (2L, 2LZnYb), were obtained. The results showed that the multiplying metabolism and the non-multiplying metabolism of bacteria could be analyzed by the thermogenic curves using the thermokinetic equations. On the multiplying metabolism, the two compounds (2L, 2LZnYb) have strong activity for E. coli. (IC₅₀ (half-inhibitory concentration) is 6.1 and 5.1 mg·L⁻¹, respectively) and weak activity for S. aureus (IC₅₀ is 310.1 and 595.9 mg·L⁻¹, respectively). The introduction of Zn and Yb with the compound slightly increased the inhibition on the multiplying metabolism of E. coli but greatly decreased the effect on that of S. aureus. The activity of these two compounds showed great difference on the non-multiplying metabolism. Regardless of E. coli or S. aureus, 2L showed a notable inhibition and MSC₅₀ (the minimum stationary-cidal concentration 50) of 2L was 6.4 and 209.7 mg·L⁻¹ for the two microorganisms, respectively. Thus, 2L may become a novel kind of potential antibacterial candidate.