Comprehensive Review on Medicinal Applications of Coumarin-Derived Imine–Metal Complexes

SIMPLE SUMMARY: This review is an attempt to gather, analyze, and systemize data about the antimicrobial, anticancer, antioxidant, anthelmintic, pesticidal, and nematocidal properties of coumarin-derived imine–metal complexes. With these properties is a discussion of the progress medicinal chemistry has made on these complexes, and the findings presented here show a promising future for this field. We hope that our review will provide medicinal chemists and biologists with a thorough and accurate review of coumarin-derived imine–metal complexes and encourage them to identify investigational new drug (IND) candidates. With those IND candidates there is the hope of biologically active drugs and a healthier, happier future for humanity. ABSTRACT: Coumarins are fused six-membered oxygen-containing benzoheterocycles that join two synthetically useful rings: α-pyrone and benzene. A survey of the literature shows that coumarins and their metal complexes have received great interest from synthetic chemists, medicinal scientists, and pharmacists due to their wide spectrum of biological applications. For instance, coumarin and its derivatives have been used as precursors to prepare a large variety of medicinal agents. Likewise, coumarin-derived imine–metal complexes have been found to display a variety of therapeutic applications, such as antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, antioxidant, anthelmintic, pesticidal, and nematocidal activities. This review highlights the current synthetic methodologies and known bioactivities of coumarin-derived imine–metal complexes that make this molecule a more attractive scaffold for the discovery of newer drugs.