Abstract
Special attention is directed to design and synthesize antimicrobial drug candidates by the complexation of bioactive ligands with transition metals. In this pursuit a ligand with imidazole ring was synthesized and treated with Cu-II, Co-II and ,Ni-II salts to afford the mononuclear metallic complexes IHC1, IHC2 and IHC3, respectively, being assigned the general formula [M(L)(2)]. Physical and spectral characterization supported octahedral geometry for the complexes. Both the ligand and the synthesized metal complexes were evaluated for their antifungal activity against three different strains of Candida, by determining the minimum inhibitory concentrations and minimum fungicidal concentrations. The antifungal activity results showed that the target compounds display remarkable antifungal activity, with metal complex IHC1 showing the most potent antifungal activity. Mechanism of action of the ligand and metal complexes appears to originate from membrane disruption as revealed by confocal scanning laser microscopy.