Antibacterial activity of ruthenium(II) carbonyl complexes containing tetradentate Schiff bases

Several new hexa-coordinated ruthenium(II) complexes of the type [Ru(CO)(LL')(B)] (where, LL' = anthacac, anthdibm, 2-amtpacac or 2-amtpdibm; B = PPh3 or py or pip or morph) have been prepared by reacting [RuHCl(CO)(PPh3)(3)] or [RuHCl(CO)(PPh3)(2)(B)] with tetradentate Schiff bases such as bis(anthranilic acid)acetylacetimine (H-2-anthacac), bis(anthranilic acid) dibenzoylmethimine (H-2-anthdibm), bis(2-aminothiophenol) acetylacetimine (H-2-2-amptacac) or bis(2-aminothiophenol) dibenzoylmethimine (H-2-2-amtpdibm). The complexes have been characterised by elemental analyses and spectral (i.r., electronic spectra, H-1- and (3)1P-n.m.r.) data. An octahedral structure has been tentatively proposed for the complexes, which were also tested for their antibacterial properties.