Synthesis, characterization, cytotoxic activity of half-sandwich rhodium(III), and iridium(III) complexes with curcuminoids

Abstract A series of organometallic rhodium and iridium complexes with curcuminoid ligands ( 1 – 14 ) have been synthesized and characterized by NMR, IR, elemental analysis, and HR-ESI-mass spectrometry. The molecular structure of complex 9 has been characterized by X-ray crystallography. The in vitro activity of all the compounds has been evaluated against the HepG2, HeLa human cancer cell lines and HEK-293T human healthy cell lines. The rhodium complex 6 exhibits excellent anticancer activity and promising selectivity towards cancer cell lines. Furthermore, the interaction of 6 with DNA has been followed by electrophoretic mobility spectrometry studies.