Substituted thienyl stibines and bismuthines: syntheses,structures and cytotoxicity

New stibine and bismuthine substituted thienyl ring compounds, i.e. tris(3‐methyl‐2‐thienyl)stibine (1), tris(3‐methyl‐2‐thienyl)bismuthine (2), tris(3‐thienyl)stibine (3), tris(3‐thienyl)bismuthine (4) and tris(5‐chloro‐2‐thienyl)stibine (5), have been synthesized and characterized by IR, mass, ¹H, ¹³C, COSY, and HETCOR NMR spectroscopy. The metal centres in all compounds are pyramidal, and molecules in the stibine compound (1) and bismuthine compound (2) associate via Sb···S or Bi···S interactions to form supramolecular chains. The cytotoxicity of compounds 1 and 5 was determined. For compound 5, 85% of carcinogenic cell growth inhibition (U, K and H) was observed. Compound 1 shows a significant selectivity (>80%) for carcinogenic cell growth (K and U) inhibition. Both the compounds are highly toxic for the growth of normal lymphocytes with ～95% lethality. Compound 1 is approximately 20 times more toxic than 5 against Artemia salina. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.