Synthesis, spectroscopic, thermal and anticancer studies of metal-antibiotic chelations: Ca(II), Fe(III), Pd(II) and Au(III) chloramphenicol complexes

•Ca(II), Fe(III), Pd(II) and Au(III) complexes of chloramphenicol drug have been synthesized and characterized.•The Ca(II), Pd(II) and Au(III) metal ions coordinated to chloramphenicol through two hydroxyl groups with 1:1 or 1:2 ratios.•Fe(III) ions chelated with chloramphenicol with 1:2 ratio via oxygen and nitrogen atoms of amido group.•The iron(III) and gold(III) chloramphenicol complexes have nano-size particles.•The cytotoxic activity of the gold(III) complex was tested against HCT-116 and HepG-2 tumor cell lines.

Four Ca(II), Fe(III), Pd(II) and Au(III) complexes of chloramphenicol drug have been synthesized and well characterized using elemental analyses, (infrared, electronic, and 1H-NMR) spectra, magnetic susceptibility measurement, and thermal analyses. Infrared spectral data show that the chloramphenicol drug coordinated to Ca(II), Pd(II) and Au(III) metal ions through two hydroxyl groups with 1:1 or 1:2 M ratios, but Fe(III) ions chelated towards chloramphenicol drug via the oxygen and nitrogen atoms of amide group with 1:2 ratio based on presence of keto↔enol form. The X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques were used to identify the nano-size particles of both iron(III) and gold(III) chloramphenicol complexes. The antimicrobial assessments of the chloramphenicol complexes were scanned and collected the results against of some kind of bacteria and fungi. The cytotoxic activity of the gold(III) complex was tested against the human colon carcinoma (HCT-116) and human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG-2) tumor cell lines.

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