Antimicrobial activities of some synthetic butenolides and their pyrrolone derivatives

Abstract

In the present investigation, 17 new synthetic butenolides, i.e. 2-arylidene-4-(4-chloro/ethyl-phenyl)but-3-en-4-olides (3–19) have been synthesized from 3-(4-chloro-benzoyl)propionic acid or 3-(4-ethyl-benzoyl)propionic acid using appropriate reagents. Some of the selected butenolides were reacted with ammonia and benzylamine to give the corresponding pyrrolones (20–31) and N-benzyl-pyrrolones (32–39) respectively. All the compounds were screened for their antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and antifungal activity against Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, and Rhizopus oryza. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of the compounds are reported. The pyrrolone derivatives discovered in this study may provide valuable therapeutic intervention for the treatment of microbial diseases, especially against fungal species.

Keywords::

• Butenolide
• pyrrolone
• antifungal
• antibacterial activity

Acknowledgements

This article was partially presented at the 56th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress (56-IPC), Kolkata, India.

Financial support provided by the AICTE, New Delhi, under the RPS scheme, is gratefully acknowledged. We are also thankful to Prof. (Mrs.) P. K. Pillai, Head, Department of Microbiology, Majeedia Hospital, New Delhi, for help in performing antimicrobial studies of the compounds.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.