Diabetes mellitus is one of the metabolic disorders resulting from excess production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) over the normal level and also due to dysfunction in the antioxidant defense mechanism, possibly both occurring simultaneously. Excess ROS are normally scavenged by antioxidants. Transition metal complexes exhibit such antioxidant property by scavenging the excess free radicals (one type of ROS) in such disorders. In this study, we report on synthesis, characterization, and in vitro study on antioxidant property of a few new ester-based vanadium(IV) complexes, namely, bis(1,1- dimethylethylpropanedioato)oxovanadium(IV) - [VO(DTBM)2]; bis(methyl-3-oxopentanoato)oxovanadium(IV) - [VO(MPA)2]; bis(ethyl-3-oxopentanoato)oxovanadium(IV) - [VO(EPA)2]; bis(2-methyl-1,3-dimethylpropanedioato)oxovanadium(IV) - [VO(DMMM)2] and bis(2-bromo-1,3-diethylpropanedioato)oxovanadium(IV) - [VO(BDEM) 2], and also furan-based vanadium complexes. Antidiabetic potential of selected complexes has been estimated. An attempt has also been made to correlate antioxidant and antidiabetic potentials of selected complexes. Our study reveals that compounds exhibiting higher glucose lowering effect seem to possess good antioxidant potential as well. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York.