Two new branched pentadentate amines (N-5), 3,6-bis(2-pyridylmethyl)-5 methyl-3,6-diazaheptane diazahexane-1-amine (1) and 4,7-bis(2-pyridylmethyl)-6-methyl-4,7-diazaheptane-1-amine (2) have been prepared. These have been used for the synthesis for the eight new macroacyclic Schiff base complexes, by template [1 + 1] condensation of pyridine-2-carbaldehyde or O-vaniline and amines (1 and 2) in the presence of Mn(II) and Zn(II) metal ions in methanol. The isolated complexes were characterized by a combination of microanalysis, IR and Mass spectroscopy. The structure of MnL1(ClO4)(2) indicates that in the solid state the Mn(II) ion adopts a slightly distorted octahedral geometry. The synthesized compounds have antibacterial activity against the three Gram-positive bacteria: Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus epidermidis and also against the three Gram-negative bacteria: Citrobacter freundii, Enterobacter aerogenes and Salmonella typhi. The structure of the complexes derived from pyridine-2-carbaldehyde and metal-ligand interactions in these complexes were also theoretically studied. It was indicated that the structure of complexes is similar to each other and metal-ligand interactions depend mainly on the nature of metal ion and is similar for this series of ligands.
