Synthesis, Charactrization and Antibacterial Activity of Schiff Bases Derived from Phenyl Hydrazine Derivatives and their Cu (II) and Zn (II) Complexes

Phenyl hydrazine schiff bases have received a lot of attention recently because of their biological importance and potential medical applications. These compounds are of particular interest because they have a variety of beneficial properties, including antibacterial, anticancer, antimalarial, antiinflammatory, antinociceptive, antitubercular, anthelmintic, antidiabetic and antiepileptic. In this research, phenyl hydrazine derivatives of Schiff base ligands namely ((E)-2-benzylidene-1-phenylhydrazine, (E)-2-(4-nitrobenzylidene) phenyl hydrazine, 2,2'-((1E, 1‘E)-hydrazine-1,2- diylidenebis (methanylylidene)) diphenol and (E)-2-(2-hydroxybenzylidene)-1-phenylhydrazine) and their copper(II) and zinc(II) complexes were synthesized and described. The synthesized ligands, were characterized by varieties of techniques including Fourier transform Infrared, UV-Visible and NMR (13C-NMR and 1H-NMR) spectroscopies. The complexes were synthesized via the reactions of ligands with the corresponding metal acetates in a medium of methanol which were then characterized by UV-Vis and IR spectroscopies. In-vitro antibacterial activity of the ligand and metal complexes were carried out against three bacteria species E. coli, Staphylococcus aureu and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by disc diffusion method. The antibacterial activity shows that the copper (II) complex (TCO8) the highest activity against bacteria than the Zn (II) metal complexes and the free ligand. The minimum inhibitory concentration of the Cu(II) complex (TCO8) demonstrated excellent antibacterial activity varies from 5 µl/ml-10 µl/ml, against S. auras, E. coli, P. aeruginosa with inhibition zone of 21 mm, 16 mm, 11mm respectively, using ciprofloxacin as a standard drug.