Bovine serum albumin: an effective and eco-friendly biocatalyst for one-pot, three-component synthesis of valuable imidazole N-oxides in H2O–EtOH medium

Abstract

A one-pot, three-component reaction procedure for the synthesis of valuable imidazole N-oxide derivatives, bioactive compounds and important starting materials for the preparation of more complex organic compounds containing imidazole scaffolds, using the biocatalyst bovine serum albumin (BSA) with the application of an incubator shaker in a solvent mixture of water–ethanol (4 : 6) has been developed. Aromatic aldehydes, when combined with aromatic or aliphatic amines, were found to be efficient in this procedure, yielding good to high amounts of the desired products. The catalytic promiscuity of the catalyst BSA is evident across a broad range of substrates including aromatic aldehydes, aliphatic/aromatic amines, and monoximes. This methodology offers numerous advantages, such as excellent yields, an environmentally friendly greener approach, the absence of hazardous solvents, the use of aqueous solvents, a straightforward work-up procedure, the recyclability of the BSA catalyst, and many others. Furthermore, the gram-scale reaction was also successfully achieved using this methodology.