New aminoporphyrins bearing urea derivative substituents: synthesis, characterization, antibacterial and antifungal activity

This work studied the synthesis of 5,10,15-tris(4-aminophenyl)-20-(N,N-dialkyl/diaryl-N-phenylurea) porphyrins (P1-P4 with alkyl or aryl groups of Ph, iPr, Et and Me, respectively) and also the preparation of their manganese (III) and cobalt (II) complexes (MnP and CoP). The P1-P4 ligands were characterized by different spectroscopic techniques (1H NMR, FTIR, UV-Vis) and elemental analysis, and metalated with Mn and Co acetate salts. The antibacterial and antifungal activities of these compounds in vitro were investigated by agar-disc diffusion method against Escherichia coli (-), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (-), Staphylococcus aureus(+), Bacillus subtilis (+) and Aspergillus oryzae and Candida albicans. Results showed that antibacterial and antifungal activity of the test samples increased with increase of their concentrations and the highest activity was obtained when the concentration of porphyrin compounds was 100 µg/mL. The activity for the porphyrin ligands depended on the nature of the urea derivative substituents and increased in the order P1 > P2 > P3 >P4, which was consistent with the order of their liposolubility. MnP and CoP complexes exhibited much higher antibacterial and antifungal activity than P1-P4ligands. Further, the growth inhibitory effects of these compounds was generally in the order CoP complexes > MnP complexes > P1-P4 ligands. Among these porphyrin compounds, CoP1displayed the highest antibacterial and antifungal activity, especially with a concentration of 100 µg/mL, against all the four tested bacteria and two fungi, and therefore it could be potential to be used as drug