Preliminary chemico-biological studies on Ru(III) compounds with S-methyl pyrrolidine/dimethyl dithiocarbamate

[RuCl3 · nH2O] and Na(trans-[RuCl4(DMSO)2]) were reacted with 1-pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate (PDT), its S-methyl ester (PDTM), and N,N-dimethylcarbamodithioic acid methyl ester (DMDTM) in water or methanol in order to obtain the corresponding Ru(III) derivatives. Once isolated and purified, the complexes were characterized by means of elemental analysis, conductivity measurements, FT-IR and 1H NMR spectroscopy, ion electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), and thermal analyses. The crystal structure of mer-[Ru(DMDTM)(DMSO)Cl3] has been also determined by X-ray crystallography. In vitro cytotoxic activity of all the synthesized complexes was eventually evaluated on some selected human tumor cell lines.