Novel hydroxy-tagged bis-dihydrazothiazole derivatives: Synthesis, antimicrobial capacity and formation of some metal chelates with iron, cobalt and zinc ions

Abstract

Until today, microbial infections epitomize a serious universal health threat. Subsequently, developing a potential antimicrobial prototype remains an urgent, global necessity. Despite several reports discussing the biological utility of some bis-thiazoles, the use of bis-dihydrazothiazoles and their corresponding metal chelates as potent antimicrobials, is yet to be explored. The current report outlines an attempt to fill that void by representing a successful synthesis of a new class of bis-dihydrazothiazoles as well as three of their transition metal chelates and their use as potential antimicrobials. This report presents the design of some novel hydroxy-tagged bis-dihydrazothiazoles 6a-e and bis-dihydrazothiazolones 9a-e via the reaction of a bis-aldehyde thiosemicarbazone 3, as a common synthetic precursor, with two groups of hydrazonoyl halide derivatives 4a-e and 7a-e. The chelation affinity of these novel bis-dihydrazothiazoles to behave as neutral tridentate ligands coordinating to the metal ions; Fe(III), Co(II), or Zn(II) through azomethine-N, thiazole-S, and azo-N atoms to form metal complexes with a metal/ligand ratio of 2:1 was confirmed. In-vitro, antimicrobial screening of the novel hydroxy-tagged bis-dihydrazothiazole derivatives, as well as a selected group of their transition metal chelate complexes [M2L], was inspected, and the data were measured in comparison to those of ketoconazole and gentamycin as antimicrobial reference standards. Most bis-dihydrazothiazoles 6a-e and bis-dihydrazothiazolones 9a-e showed decent to excellent antimicrobial activities against the screened microbes, but the chloro-substituted bis dihydrazothiazole derivatives 6c and 9c showed exceptional inhibition of Bacillus subtilis (20 mm), Escherichia coli (25 mm), and Candida albicans (19 mm), and Salmonella typhimurium (19 mm), respectively. Additionally, amongst the three synthesized metal complexes [M2L], only the zinc complex, [Zn2L] showed remarkable inhibition of both Staphylococcus aureus (21 mm) and Salmonella typhimurium (19 mm) compared to the reference standard Gentamycin, and was more potent than the free ligand, 6a itself (no activity and 11 mm respectively). Antimicrobial inspection was assessed by the agar well diffusion assay method against all bacterial and fungal strains. Magnetic moment, diffused reflectance, FT-IR, 1H NMR, molar conductivity, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were among the many techniques used to elucidate the structures of all novel hydroxy-tagged bis-heterocyclic ligands and their metal chelate complexes.

Keywords

• Bis-aldehyde thiosemicarbazone
• Hydrazonoyl halides
• Transition metal complexes
• Antibacterial, antifungal prototypes