To synthesize, characterize and evaluate the antitumor potential derived from ruthenium compounds was generated in this study, from the precursor K[RuCl 4 (bipy)] a route in a simple and reproducible synthesis for a novel compound of coordinating Ru +3 with bipy and L-trip. The spectroscopic characterization in the middle infrared region (FTIR) shows the interactions between Ru-(L-trip), evidenced by the displacement of the carboxylate ion band for higher energies, and also by the displacements of aliphatic amine bands, suggesting that bidentate coordination of the L-trip ligand occurred. Analysis of the results obtained with thermoanalytical techniques showed that the minimum formula of the compound, [RuCl 2 (bipy)(L-trip)]1/2H 2 O. Evaluation of the antitumor potential of precursor K[RuCl 4 (bipy)] showed the toxic effects on MCF-7 cell line, but did not show selectivity and not reached PBMC cells to the same extent. The evaluation of the antitumor potential of the newly synthesized compound, [RuCl 2 (bipy)(L-trip)], demonstrated that the insertion of an L-tryptophan molecule into the precursor coordination sphere made it selective when compared to PBMC cells, for MCF-7 type tumor cells.