Synthesis, anti-oomycete activity, and SAR studies of paeonol derivatives

Abstract

Three series of sulfonate derivatives of paeonol were synthesized and screened in vitro for their anti-oomycete activity against P. capsici, respectively. Among all the compounds, 4m displayed the best promising and pronounced anti-oomycete activity against P. capsici than zoxamide, with the EC₅₀ values of 24.51 and 26.87 mg/L, respectively. The results show that acetyl and 4-OCH₃ are two necessary groups. The existence of these two sites is closely related to the anti-oomycete activity. Relatively speaking, hydroxyl group is well tolerated, and the results showed that after modification of hydroxyl group with sulfonyl, the anti-oomycete activity was significantly increased.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Natural product
• paeonol
• sulfonylation
• anti-oomycete activity
• structure–activity relationship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U1604105, 31901863), the Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province (Grant No. 182300410043, 182300410016, 152300410082), the SRTP Project of Henan University of Science and Technology (2019406).