Nawaz et al. BMC Chemistry (2022) 16:21 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13065-022-00817-x RESEARCH ARTICLE Synthesis of metal anthranilate complexes: catalytic and antipathogenic studies Muhammad Nawaz 1* , Muhammad Waseem Abbasi 2 , Marium Tariq 3 , John Patrick Graham 4 , Abdul‑Rahman Saleh Al‑Hagri 5 , Ahmed Awad Elkarim 5 , Muayad Elsiddig Mohamed 5 , Veeranoot Nissapatorn 6 , Muhammad Taha 7 and Soleiman Hisaindee 5* Abstract Background: Anthranilic acid is an active compound with diverse biological activities such as anti‑infammatory, antineoplastic, anti‑malarial and α‑glucosidase inhibitory properties. It can also chelate transition metals to form com‑ plexes with applications as antipathogens, photoluminescent materials, corrosion inhibitors, and catalysts. Results: Anthranilic acid complexes (1–10) of Zn(II), Bi(III), Ag(I), Fe(II), Co(II), Cu(II), Mn(II), Al, Ni(II), and Cr(III) were syn‑ thesized and characterized using thermogravimetric (TGA), elemental analysis, FT‑IR, UV–vis spectrometry, mass spec‑ trometry and magnetic susceptibility. The morphology and size of metal complex (1–10) particles were determined by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the surface area was determined by BET analysis. TGA and CHN analysis data indicated that the stoichiometries of complexes were 1:2 metal/ligand except for Ag(I), Al and Bi. Furthermore, DFT study was performed to optimize the structure of selected complexes. The complexes (1–10) were evaluated for their catalytic activity in the reduction of 4‑nitrophenol (4‑NP), antibacterial activity against S. aureus, P. aeroginosa and E. coli as well as their antifungal activity against F. solani and A. niger. The complexes were also tested against the second‑stage juveniles (J 2 ) root‑knot nematodes. Conclusion: Co(II) complex 5 and Cu(II) complex 6 showed high catalytic activity for the reduction of 4‑NP to 4‑ami‑ nophenol (4‑AP). Ag(I) complex 3 showed the best activity against the pathogens that were tested namely clinically important bacteria S. aureus, P. aeroginosa and E. coli, commercially important fungi F. solani and A. niger and J 2 root‑ knot nematodes M. javanica. Keywords: Anthranilic acid, Metal complexes, Catalysis, Environmental pollutants, Biological activities, DFT © The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativeco mmons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Background Organic-metal complexes are important in medicinal chemistry and are widely used for diagnosis purpose and treatment of diferent diseases such as arthritis, can- cer, anti-microbial, anti-fungal and anti-parasitic agents [1–3]. Transition metals are important in the human body and perform several important functions [4]. Over the past decade, transition metals found an increasing use in drug design and development [4–8]. Industrial waste comprises several hazardous chemi- cals and materials which seriously afect human health and aquatic animals [9, 10]. Phenolic compounds, organic dyes and pesticides are examples of such indus- trial wastes [11–13]. Among phenolic compounds, 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) is considered one of the most rep- resentative contaminants [14]. 4-Aminophenol (4-AP) is the reduced product of 4-NP and is widely used in the Open Access BMC Chemistry *Correspondence: mnnmuhammad@iau.edu.sa; soleiman.hisaindee@uaeu.ac.ae 1 Department of Nano‑Medicine Research, Institute for Research and Medical Consultations (IRMC), Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 31441, Saudi Arabia 5 Chemistry Department, College of Science, United Arab Emirates University, P.O. Box 15551, Al‑Ain, United Arab Emirates Full list of author information is available at the end of the article