Abstract

SYNTHESIS AND BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES OF CHALCONES AND THEIR HETEROCYCLIC DERIVATIVES: A REVIEW

Rajat Ghosh*, Abhijit Das

ABSTRACT

Chalcones are an important class of natural products and are considered as the precursors of flavonoids and isoflavonoids. Chemically, chalcones are 1,3-diaryl-2-propen-1-ones in which two aromatic rings are joined by a three carbon bridge having a cabonyl moiety and α,β unsaturation. Traditionally, chalcones are prepared by Claisen-Schmidt condensation of equimolar concentrations of arylaldehydes and acetophenones which are generally base catalysed. One of the important class of reactions of chalcones are the ring closure reactions with hydrazine, phenylhydrazine, guanidine, urea etc. producing heterocyclic derivatives of chalcones. Both chalcones and their heterocyclic derivatives have a number of pharmacological activities such as antiinflammatory, antimicrobial, antifungal, antibacterial, antioxidant, cytotoxic, antitumor, anticancer, antimitotic, antileishmanial, anti-malarial, antitubercular, antiviral, and so on. In this review efforts have been made to throw some light on the synthesis and biological activities of chalcones and their derivatives.

Keywords: Chalcones, Claisen-Schmidt condensation, Heterocyclic Derivatives, Antimicrobial, Enzyme-Inhibitory Activity