Multipurpose iron-chelating ligands inspired by bioavailable molecules

Because of their capacity to bind metals, metal chelators are primarily employed for therapeutic purposes, but they can also find applications as colorimetric reagents and cleaning solutions as well as in soil remediation, electroplating, waste treatment, and so on. For instance, iron-chelation therapy, which is used to treat iron-overload disorders, involves removing excess iron from the blood through the use of particular molecules, like deferoxamine, that have the ability to chelate the metal. The creation of bioinspired and biodegradable chelating agents is a crucial objective that draws inspiration from natural products. In this context, starting from bioavailable molecules such as maltol and pyrogallol, new molecules have been synthetized and characterized by potentiometry, infrared spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. Finally, the ability of these to bind iron has been investigated, and the stability constants of ferric complexes are measured using spectrophotometry. These compounds offer intriguing scaffolds for an innovative class of versatile, multipurpose chelating agents.