Electrophoretic Study of Binary and Mixed Metal Complexes with Medicinally Important Ligands

Human health is closely linked with a healthy and clean environment. Rapid growth in urbanization and industrialization has increased the levels of heavy metals in the environment and consequently in the food chain. Metals ions play an important role in biological system 1-3 and required for many critical functions in human. Metal coordination to medicinally active molecules can be used to enhance their activity. The chemistry of metal-drug coordination compounds is more popular now than before particularly in the design of more biologically active drugs. 4 Many drugs posses modified pharmacological and toxicological properties when administered in the form of metallic complexes. The efficacies of the drug on coordination with a metal are enhanced in many cases. 5 Iron and Manganese are essential micronutrients with a variety of biochemical functions in all living organism. The amount of these metals can be varying in human body through intake of diet and different environmental factors, either contribute cause toxicity. 6 The present paper describes a paper electrophoretic method for the determination of stability constant of biologically significant metal complexes in solution. Stability constant is useful physical entity, which explains the importance and function of various complexes in biological systems. 7-9 High concentration of metal ions in living system can be prevented by the use of specific chelating agents. The chelation therapy for intoxication of metals depends upon the chelating agent being able to reach the intercellular site where the metals are firmly bound. For a pretty long time, varieties of ligand have been used as chelating agent to combat metal poisoning. In present study, ephedrine has been used as primary ligand, which is a sympathomimetic ammine commonly used as a stimulant, appetite suppressant, concentration aid, decongestant and treat hypotension associated with anaesthesia. Literature survey 10-16 reveals that no work has been reported using ephedrine as a primary and NTA as a secondary ligand till now. This inspired us to study the stability constant of binary and mixed complexes of ephedrine and NTA with Fe (III) and Mn (II) in solution using paper electrophoretic technique. Abstract: Metals occur naturally in the earth’s crust and their contents in the environment can vary between different regions resulting in spatial variations of background concentrations. Human health is closely linked with a healthy and clean environment. Rapid growth in urbanization and industrialization has increased the levels of heavy metals in the environment and consequently in the food chain. Metal ions are required for many critical functions, physiological and pathological process in human. Iron and Manganese are essential micronutrients with a variety of biochemical functions in all living organism and their lethal dose become toxic to human body. High concentration of metal ions in living system can be prevented by the use of specific chelating agents. The complexation of Fe(III) and Mn(II) with medicinally important ligand ephedrine and NTA in solution were studied by paper electrophoretic technique. Stability constants of investigated chelates were determined at 25°C. The stability constant data revealed that ephedrine and NTA may be used as chelating agent.