Metal Complexes of Cephalexin and Their Biological Activities: A Review

Cephalexin and its derivatives are commonly utilized in the pharmaceutical and medicinal industry due to their biological and pharmaceutical activities, including anti-microbial, anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, and herbicidal activities as well as possessing high palatability and being useful for skin and joint infections. Interestingly, some organic drugs, including cephalexin, which exhibit toxicological and pharmacological properties, can be administered in forms of metal complexes. Many researchers have synthesized organic ligands derived from cephalexin in forms of Schiff bases and azo compounds which exhibited higher biological and medicinal properties when compared to cephalexin alone. One of the important features that make Schiff base more desirable when used for coordination complexation is possessing the ability to coordinate with the metal ions via forming chelating rings, which make them very effective when it comes to clinical and analytical applications. In this review, we present the latest and most promising studies that are related to synthesizing organic derivatives of cephalexin and their drug-metal complexes as well as the biological activity that is associated with these complexes.