Official URL: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bca/

A range of monocarboxylic acids are known to have a variety of pharmacological effects. Salicylic acid and its derivatives, for example, have been shown to possess anti-inflammatory and antitumour activity [1]. Upon coordination to a suitable metal centre, the biologically active carboxylic acids often become more effective and desirable drugs [2]. The carboxylate group is an important class of ligand in inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry, metal complexes containing monocarboxylic acids are well known, and the publication ofmany structurally characterised examples of this class of compound has demonstrated its versatility as an inner-sphere ligand [3]. The coordination chemistry of dicarboxylic acids is far less developed as polymeric products are usually obtained, and indeed structural information for this class of complex is relatively scarce. Recently, we have shown that the reaction of polymeric dicarboxylate complexes of copper(II), manganese(II), and cobalt(II) with the N,N-donor ligands 1,10-phenanthroline and 2,2�-bipyridine can lead to the synthesis of crystalline compounds which are easily structurally characterised by X-ray methods [4–9]. A number of the manganese complexes have been found to exhibit excellent catalase-mimetic activity [5, 8] and it has also been demonstrated that N-donor derivatives of the dicarboxylate complexes of a range of metals are very effective antifungal agents possessing significantly different modes of action to the state-of-the-art prescription drugs [10–12].