Vijay K. Juyal ^1* Shweta C. Thakuri ¹ Mohit Panwar ^1* Rashmi . ^1* Dr Om Prakash ² Kahkashan Perveen ³ Najat A. Bukhari ^3* Viveka Nand ^1*

• ¹ Department of Chemistry, College of Basic Sciences And Humanities, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India
• ² Central Ayurveda Research Institute, New Delhi, New Delhi, India
• ³ College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

A new bidentate Schiff base ligand (C 16 H 16 Cl 2 N 4 ), condensation product of ethylene diamine and 4-Chloro N-Phenyl formamide, and its metal complexes [M(C 16 H 16 Cl 2 N 4 ) 2 (OAc) 2 ] (where M = Mn(II) and Zn(II)) were synthesized and characterized using various analytical and spectral techniques, including HRMS, elemental analysis, UV-Vis, FT-IR, AAS, molar conductance, 1 HNMR, and Powder XRD. All the compounds were found non-electrolyte and nanocrystalline.The synthesized compounds were assessed for antioxidant potential by DPPH radical scavenging and FRAP assay, with BHT serving as the positive control. IC50 values were calculated and used for comparative analysis. Furthermore, the prepared compounds were screened for antibacterial activity against two Gram-negative bacteria (S. aureus and B. subtilis) and two Gram-positive bacteria (E. coli and S. typhi) using disk-diffusion methods, with Amikacin employed as the standard reference. The comparison of inhibition zones revealed that the complexes showed better antibacterial activity compared to the ligand. To gain insights into the molecular interactions underlying the antibacterial activity, the ligand and complexes were analyzed for their binding affinity with S. aureus Tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase (PDB ID-1JIL) and S. typhi cell membrane protein OmpF complex (PDB ID-4KR4). These analyses revealed robust interactions, validating the observed antibacterial effects against the tested bacterial strains.