New supramolecular ferrocenyl phenylguanidines as potent antimicrobial and DNA-binding agents

Abstract

Six new ferrocenyl phenylguanidines have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR, multinuclear (¹H and ¹³C) NMR, and single crystal analysis. The latter showed a supramolecular structure for 2 mediated by OH and πH interactions. A subsequent DNA-binding study of these complexes proved them to be good DNA binders with the binding constant varying in the range of 1.2–5.6 × 10⁵M⁻¹. These compounds were found to have moderate antibacterial and significant antifungal activities, especially for compounds having a chlorophenyl. These compounds may emerge as a new class of anticancer and antifungal agents alone or in combination with other drugs.

Keywords:

• Ferrocenyl phenylguanidine
• DNA binding
• Antibacterial
• Antifungal activity

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan for financial support.