Antimicrobial Activity of Metal Cystine Complexes

Abstract

Metal cystine complexes of nickel(II), mercury(II) and cadmium(II) have been synthesized and their antimicrobial activities have been evaluated. It is found that mercury(II) cystine and cadmium(II) cystine complexes have pronounced antibacterial and antifungal activities. On the other hand nickel(II) cystine shows moderate activities. The LC₅₀ values of nickel(II) cystine, mercury(II) cystine and cadmium(II) cystine are found to be 5.2, 8.0 and 7.2 ?g ml^-1, respectively. These values were obtained from cytotoxic studies indicating that they are biologically active compounds.