Synthesis, cytotoxic and antimicrobial activities of novel cobalt and zinc complexes of benzimidazole derivatives

In this study fourteen novel cobalt (II) or zinc (II) complexes of benzimidazoles were synthesized from the 1-(4-substitutedbenzyl)-1H-benzimidazoles and CoCl2·6H2O or ZnCl2. Cytotoxic activities of novel complexes were investigated against lung cancer cells (A549) and BEAS-2B. Three of the examined compounds (1, 4 and 5) showed high cytotoxic activity against A549. While the IC50 of the cisplatin was 2.56 μg/mL for A549 cells at 72 h, the IC50 values of compounds 1, 4 and 5 were 1.97, 1.87 and 1.9 μg/mL, respectively. IC50 values of these compounds for BEAS-2B cells were higher than the IC50 values for A549. While the IC50 values for BEAS-2B cells were 59.8, 24.5 and 32.67 μg/mL, respectively, the IC50 of the cisplatin was determined as 2.53 μg/mL in the present work. Three of the compounds have also high antimicrobial activity against all the microorganisms used.Scientific and Technological Research Council in Turkey (TUBITAK 113Z647