Synthesis, Crystal Structure, Antioxidant, Antimicrobial, and Mutagenic Activities and DNA Interaction Studies of Ni(II) Schiff Base 4-Methoxy-3-benzyloxybenzaldehyde Thiosemicarbazide Complexes

Three new Ni(II) square planar complexes of 4-methoxy-3-benzyloxybenzaldehyde thiosemicarbazide(4m3BTSC) having polypyridyl bases of general formulation [ML2] (1) and [MLB] (2, 3), where L = 4m3BTSC and B is N,N-donor heterocyclic bases, namely, 1,10-phenanthroline (phen, 2), 2,2′-bipyridine (bpy, 3), are synthesized and characterized. The free radical scavenging assay results showed that complex 1 possesses significant activity when compared to complexes 2 and 3. The biological studies showed that the ligand and its complexes exhibited significant and different biological activities and also the prepared compounds are nonmutagenic. They may be potential commercial antioxidants because of their nonmutagenic and nontoxic nature. The DNA interaction of the new complexes is evaluated by absorption, emission, and melting temperature methods, and the results suggested that the binding affinity of the complexes increases with the presence of planar ligand in the molecule. The nickel (II) complexes with planar phenanthroline bases show moderate DNA binding and cleavage ability.