Synthesis and Characterization of Schiff Base Ligands Derived from Amino Acids

Abstract

Schiff base ligands and their metal complexes have been shown to exhibit important biological activities in biological systems and in the pharmaceutical industry (anti-tumor, anti-cancer, anti-malaria, anti-diabetic, etc). Significant research in this area is ongoing and a lot of complexes have been synthesized with promising biological and/or catalytic activities [1-4]. This project is the preliminary step to synthesizing metal complexes with Schiff Base ligands derived from amino acids for use in biological systems and/or catalysis. In this project, we have synthesized Schiff Base ligands from salicylaldehyde, benzaldehyde, and 4-dimethylnitrobenzaldehyde, with the following amino acids: alanine, histidine, leucine, valine, phenylalanine, and serine. The general names of the ligands are N-salicylidene, N-benzalidene, and N-dimethylnitrobenzalidene amino acids, respectively. Characterization of the ligands have been done using the following techniques; UV-visible spectroscopy, ¹H NMR spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, melting/decomposition point, and solubility tests. The results will be presented in the poster. 

References:

1. H. L. Singh and J. Singh, Int. J. of Inorg. Chem., 2013, (vol 2013), pp1-10
2. M. Alias, H. Kassum and C. Shakir, JAAUBAS, 2014, (vol. 15), pp28-34
3. Rathore et al., Eur. J. Chem. 2010, pp. S566–S572 7(S1)
4. E. Yousif et al., Arabian, J. Chem., 2013, pp1-5

*Indicates faculty mentor.