Task-specific ionic liquid catalyzed synthesis of novel naphthoquinone–urazole hybrids and evaluation of their antioxidant and in vitro anticancer activity

Abstract

We have reported the synthesis of naphthoquinone–urazole hybrids via one pot condensation of 2-hydroxynapthalene-1,4-dione, aldehydes and 4-phenylurazole using task specific ionic liquid (bmim[HSO₄]). All newly synthesized compounds were screened for in vitro antioxidant activity by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay and anticancer activity against human breast (T47D), colon (HCT-15), lung (NCI-H522), liver (HepG-2) and ovary (PA-1) cancer cell lines. All the naphthoquinone–urazole hybrids showed high DPPH radical scavenging activity, comparable to the standard BHT. Compounds IVf, IVh, IVi and IVj exhibited very good anticancer activity.