Khan, N.-U.H., Discipline of Inorganic Materials and Catalysis, Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), G. B. Marg, Bhavnagar 364 021, Gujarat, India
Pandya, N., Discipline of Inorganic Materials and Catalysis, Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), G. B. Marg, Bhavnagar 364 021, Gujarat, India
Maity, N.C., Discipline of Inorganic Materials and Catalysis, Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), G. B. Marg, Bhavnagar 364 021, Gujarat, India
Kumar, M., Discipline of Marine Biotechnology and Ecology, Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), G. B. Marg, Bhavnagar 364 021, Gujarat, India
Patel, R.M., Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, S.K. Patel College of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Kherva, Dist. Mehsana, Ganpat Vidyanagar, Gujarat, India
Kureshy, R.I., Discipline of Inorganic Materials and Catalysis, Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), G. B. Marg, Bhavnagar 364 021, Gujarat, India
Abdi, S.H.R., Discipline of Inorganic Materials and Catalysis, Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), G. B. Marg, Bhavnagar 364 021, Gujarat, India
Mishra, S., Discipline of Marine Biotechnology and Ecology, Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), G. B. Marg, Bhavnagar 364 021, Gujarat, India
Das, S., Analytical Science Discipline, Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), G. B. Marg, Bhavnagar 364 021, Gujarat, India
Bajaj, H.C., Discipline of Inorganic Materials and Catalysis, Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), G. B. Marg, Bhavnagar 364 021, Gujarat, India

New chiral V(V) Schiff base complexes (S)-[VO(OMe)L] and (R)-[VO(OMe)L] were synthesized and characterized by microanalysis, infrared (IR), UV-Visible, Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and single crystal X-ray studies. The interaction of these complexes with calf thymus (CT) DNA and bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein showed chiral expression DNA/protein binding strength. The influence of chirality was also observed in cytotoxicity assay of Hep 2 cells. (R)-[VO(OMe)L] enantiomer exhibited higher binding constant (5 ± 1 × 10 5 M -1) as compared to (S)-[VO(OMe)L] (8 ± 1 × 10 4 M -1). The fluorescence quenching, thermal melting and viscosity data suggest DNA surface and/or groove binding nature of the complexes and electrophoresis studies also showed greater activity for (R)-[VO(OMe)L] in cleaving DNA and protein as against (S)-[VO(OMe)L]. © 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.