cis-[PtCl 2 (NH 3 )(2-picoline)] (1) (AMD 473) is a recently reported active anticancer complex. Hydrolysis may be an important step in its intracellular activation and interaction with DNA. In this paper we employed [ 1 H, 15 N] 2 D NMR spectroscopy to determine the hydrolysis rates for each chloride ligand of this complex and its 3-picoline analogue 2. We also report the pK a values of the aqua and diaqua ligands as well as the X-ray crystal structures of 1 and 2. For the 3-picoline complex 2 the rate of hydrolysis of the Cl À trans to NH 3 (k 1b 1.0 Â 10 À4 s
À1, I 0.1m, 310 K) is similar to that of cisplatin, but slower for the Cl À trans to 3-picoline (k 1a 4.5 Â 10 À5 s À1 ). Both of the first hydrolysis rates for the 2-picoline complex 1 are slower than those of 2, but in contrast to 2, the hydrolysis of the Cl À trans to NH 3 (cis to 2-picoline) is slower (k 1b 2.2 Â 10 À5 s
À1) than for the Cl À trans to 2-picoline (k 1a 3.2 Â 10 À5 s
À1). The crystal structure of 2 revealed that the pyridine ring is tilted by 498 with respect to the Pt square plane, whereas in 1 the ring is almost perpendicular (1038). This introduces steric hindrance by the CH 3 group towards an axial approach to Pt from above, leading to a destabilisation of the expected trigonal-bipyramidal transition state, an effect well-known in substitution reactions of Pt II complexes. The pK a values for the monoaqua adducts of 1 (6.13 and 6.49) and 2 (5.98 and 6.26 for H 2 O trans to picoline and NH 3 , respectively) and for the diaqua adducts (5.22, 7.16 for 1 and 5.07, 6.94 for 2) are b 0.3 units lower than for cisplatin. The slowness of the hydrolysis, combined with the dominance of (inert) hydroxo species, is expected to contribute to a greatly reduced reactivity of the sterically-hindered 2-picoline complex under intracellular conditions.