In-vitro cytotoxicity studies of vanadyl complexes with hydroxamic acid series

Two vanadium(IV) complexes of hydroxamic acid derivatives namely benzohydroxamic acid (BHA) and salicylhydroxamic acid (SHA) are synthesized and characterized using elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy and ¹H NMR spectroscopy. Through infrared investigation, it is intimated that the hydroxamic acids coordinate to the metal centers as O,O bis-bidentate ligands, each acting as singly deprotonated hydroxamato moieties. Upon in-vitro cytoxicity investigation on liver cell-lines using MTT assay, all the ligands are revealed to be non-toxic whereas the complexes showed very much enhanced toxicity with the lowest cell viability of 17.8% after a 72-hour exposure to the compounds.