Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Chemistry Africa (2021) 4:777–789 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42250-021-00283-3 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Synthesis and Spectral, Electrochemical, Protein‑Docking and Biological Studies of Fluoxetine Dithiocarbamate and Its Bivalent Metal Complexes Dhananjay Rao Thandra 1  · Venkata Bharat Nishtala 1  · Ramachandraiah Allikayala 1 Received: 15 July 2021 / Accepted: 22 September 2021 / Published online: 29 September 2021 © The Tunisian Chemical Society and Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 Abstract A dithiocarbamate ligand, FLXDTC, has been synthesized from fuoxetine drug along with its complexes of some bivalent metal ions such as Zn(II), Cd(II), Hg(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Mn(II) and Cu(II). The ligand and the complexes have been charac- terized by various analytical and spectroscopic methods in addition to some voltammetry studies. The studies propose the formation M(FLXDTC) 2 complex for all where M = Zn(II), Cd(II), Hg(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Mn(II) and Cu(II) ions. It is also found that Cu(FLXDTC) 2 takes in more CuCl 2 to result in a Cu 2 (FLXDTC) 2 Cl 2 kind binuclear complex with sulfur atom bridges Antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, anti-malarial and antitumor capabilities have been tested for both FLXDTC and M(FLXDTC) 2 complexes. Molecular docking studies on Cu(FLXDTC) 2 with the intercession of EGFR protein show good antimicrobial and antifungal activities. Biological studies of manganese and nickel complexes have shown excellent anti- oxidant activity with IC 50 values of 11.29 ± 1.85 and 11.51 ± 1.38 μM. Three diferent cancer cell lines, viz., MCF-7, HepG-2 and HEK 293 have been subjected to the anticancer screening for FLXDTC and it metal complexes whereby it is revealed that Cd(FLXDTC) 2 has greater activity against MCF-7 (IC 50 = 23.08 ± 0.12 µM), HepG-2 (IC 50 = 12.30 ± 0.25 µM) whereas Zn(FLXDTC) 2 exhibits good anticancer activity against MCF-7 (IC 50 = 28.63 ± 1.36 µM), HepG-2 (IC 50 = 19.24 ± 1.04 µM). Extended author information available on the last page of the article