Organometallic ruthenium(II) complexes: synthesis, structure and influence of substitution at azomethine carbon towards DNA/BSA binding, radical scavenging and cytotoxicity.

Bivalent, ruthenium organometallics containing hydrazone ligands with the composition [RuH(CO)(PPh(3))(2)(L(1-3))] (4-6) have been synthesised from the reactions of [RuH(2)(CO)(PPh(3))(3)] and benzoic acid pyridine-2-ylmethylene-hydrazide (HL(1)) (1) /benzoic acid (1-pyridin-2-yl-ethylidene)-hydrazide (HL(2)) (2)/benzoic acid (phenyl-pyridin-2-yl-methylene)-hydrazide (HL(3)) (3) and characterised by various physico-chemical techniques. The X-ray crystal structure of one of the above complexes, [RuH(CO)(PPh(3))(2)(L(3))] (6) demonstrated a distorted octahedral coordination geometry around the metal centre. Results of our investigation on the effect of substitution (H or CH(3) or C(6)H(5)) at the azomethine carbon of coordinated hydrazone in these ruthenium chelates on the potential binding with DNA/BSA, free radical scavenging and cytotoxicity is presented.