Transition Metal Complexes of DeHydroAcetic acid Schiff Bases

The Schiff bases and their transition metal complexes possess novel structural features, interesting spectral and magnetic properties. They have attracted many researchers due to their importance in medicinal, agricultural, analytical, biological, catalysis, polymer science and industrial fields. Their studies have made tremendous advances in recent decades due to their industrial demand as antimicrobial, anticancer, antiseptic, antidiarrhoeal, antiulcer agents and they are also useful in LCD's, metal corrosion inhibition and myocardial perfusion imaging. The antimicrobial and insecticidal activity of Schiff bases increases with incorporation of the azomethine (>C=N) and arylazo (Ar-N=N-) groups in them. The dehydroacetic acid (DHA) is used to enhance vitamin-C stability, as food preservative and as strong antiseptic agent even at very low concentration (0.02-2.0%). The inclusion of DHA as arylazo Schiff base in transition metal complexes enhances their properties. To ascertain these potentialities and their applications, it is important to synthesize the arylazo Schiff base metal complexes derived from DHA and undertake their characterization studies.