The synthesis of new chiral copper(ii) complexes with terpene derivatives of ethylenediamine and the results of studying their antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant activity in vitro are discussed.

In an era of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections overshadowed by a lack of innovation in the antimicrobial drug development pipeline, there has been a resurgence in multidisciplinary approaches aimed at tackling this global health problem. One such approach is to use metal complexes as a framework for new antimicrobials. Indeed, in this context, bismuth-, silver- and gold-derived compounds in particular have displayed demonstrable antimicrobial activity. In this work, we discuss the antimicrobial and antifungal activities of terpene-derived chiral palladium complexes against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, Candida albicans, and Cryptococcus neoformans. It was established that all studied coordination compounds of palladium were highly active antifungal drugs. In contrast, the subset of palladacycles possessing a palladium–carbon bond were only active against the Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. All compounds were inactive against the Gram-negative bacteria tested.

The review presents a summary and systematic analysis of the literature data on the antibacterial and antifungal activity of palladium complexes with organic ligands published over the past three years. The structures of different types of stable complexes are discussed. Taking into account the great structural diversity of the compounds under consideration, the classification of the complexes is performed in terms of the nature of donor centres of the initial ligands. A group of palladium phthalocyanine complexes for photodynamic therapy is considered separately. The final section is devoted to palladium complexes with terpene ligands, which are of scientific interest to the authors of this review. The bibliography includes 97 references.

New enantiomerically pure Schiff bases have been synthesized starting from (–)-3-bromocamphor and ethylenediamine, and their palladium chelates have been obtained.