Relationship between Coordination Structure and Biological Activity of Copper(II) Nicotinate

1 INTRODUCTION In 1945, Braude1] found for the first time that adding copper (Cu) ten times the normal requisite amount into the feed can improve the production property of the animal obviously. Therefore, from then on copper has been widely applied in pig- breeding industry as an effective growth-promoting agent, especially in the process of intensive culture, which plays an important part in improving the growth of animal and the production property. However, at the same time, the high…

Relationship between Coordination Structure and Biological Activity of Copper(II) Nicotinate

The copper(II) complexes of pyridine-3-carboxylic acid (nicotinic acid) and pyridine-2-carboxylic acid (isonicotinic acid) were synthesized, and their structures were characterized by elemental analysis, infrared spectrum, powder X-ray diffraction and so on. The results show that under experimental conditions, the ligands of synthesized copper nicotinate and copper isonicotinate are coordinated simultaneity with copper(II) via the nitrogen of pyridine group and an oxygen of carboxylic acid group to form bidentate chelates. The crystal of copper nicotinate with two six-membered chelate rings belongs to monoclinic system, while that of copper isonicotinate having two five-membered chelate rings is of triclinic system. The tests show that the biological activities, such as the improvement of feed utilization, growth, anti-oxidation ability of organism and disease-resistant power, are different when copper nicotinate, copper inicotinate, copper-lysine chelate, copper-methionine chelate and copper sulphate are added in pig's feed, respectively. Due to its higher biological activity, less pollution and lower toxicity, copper nicotinate has wide potential applications as a feed additive.