Schiff bases and their metal complexes with biologically compatible metal ions; biological importance, recent trends and future hopes

Abstract Schiff bases are in the field of medicinal and material chemistry for a long time. There are several advancements from time to time towards facile synthesis and potential applications. As medicines they have been applied as organic molecules as well as their metal complexes. The activities of metal complexes have been found to increase due to increase lipophilicity in comparison to the corresponding free ligand. Besides simple coordination compounds they have been applied as ionic liquid (IL)- supported and IL-tagged species with far enhanced efficiency. Among metal complexes recent advancement deals with photodynamic therapy to treat a number of tumors with fewer side effects. Schiff bases are efficient ligands and their complexes with almost all metal ions are reported. This mini-review article deals with complexes of Schiff bases with biologically compatible metal ions, Co(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Pd(II), Ag(I), Pt(II) and their potential uses to combat cancerous cells. Strong hopes are associated with photodynamic therapy and IL-tagged and IL-supported Schiff bases and their complexes.