Afzaye Rasool, Rakesh Panda and Dr. Monica Kachroo
Chalcones which are also known as α,β-unsaturated ketones is an important class of organic compounds and reported to possess a wide spectrum of biological activities such as antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, anti-inflammatory etc. The biological activity of chalcone is mainly because of an enone pharmacophore in their structures, the importance of which is well documented in the literature. Although a number of drugs are available in the market, the thirst for discovering a new drug with better pharmacokinetic profile, lesser toxicity has become imperative for obvious reasons and also due to the fast development of microbial resistance towards existing molecules. Therefore in the present study some novel chalcones have been synthesized for biological activities like anti-cancer , antibacterial and antioxidant activity. Cyclic ketones having α-hydrogens was treated with various aromatic aldehydes in alcohol, in the presence of potassium hydroxide to form corresponding α,β-unsaturated compounds. The structures of these compounds are supported by their UV, IR, NMR and Mass spectral data. The compounds have been evaluated for their anti-cancer, antibacterial and antioxidant activities.
