Inorganic chemistry, asemicarbazone is aderivative ofimines formed by acondensation reaction between aketone oraldehyde andsemicarbazide. They are classified as imine derivatives because they are formed from the reaction of an aldehyde or ketone with the terminal -NH2 group of semicarbazide, which behaves very similarly to primaryamines.
For example, the semicarbazone ofacetone would have the structure (CH3)2C=NNHC(=O)NH2.
Some semicarbazones, such asnitrofurazone, andthiosemicarbazones are known to haveanti-viral andanti-cancer activity, usually mediated through binding tocopper oriron in cells. Many semicarbazones are crystalline solids, useful for the identification of the parent aldehydes/ketones bymelting point analysis.[1]
Athiosemicarbazone is an analog of a semicarbazone which contains asulfur atom in place of the oxygen atom.
