Metal complex of Nickel (II) containing a dithio-based ligand have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, mass spectrometry, Proton NMR and FT-IR spectrometry. A single crystal X-ray structure of the cadmium complex has been analyzed. The metal complex was subjected to biological tests on falcipain-2 (FP-2) and falcipain-3 (FP-3) cysteine protease enzymes from the malaria parasite plasmodium falciparum. They were further tested in vitro against chloroquine resistant strain (W2). Whereas the potency of the metal complexes was weaker than the control regarding the FP-2 and FP-3, the potency of metal complexes was found to be exceedingly greater than the control when tested against the chloroquine resistant strain (W2) with a strength ratio of (1.4). This paper describes the synthesis, characterization and biological results of the said metal complex containing deprotonated 3-[1-(2-pyridyl) ethylidene] hydrazinecarbodithioate ligand.
