Synthesis and antimicrobial screening of some novel chalcones and flavanones substituted with higher alkyl chains

As a part of our program to generate some novel flavonoid frameworks substituted with higher alkyl groups as possible antimicrobial agents, we have in total synthesized twelve novel chalcones ( 11 – 16 ) and their corresponding flavanones ( 17 – 22 ) substituted with either nonyl or dodecyl chains in ring B in very good to excellent yields. The synthesized compounds have been screened for their antimicrobial potential against six bacterial and four fungal strains. The tested compounds, in general, showed significant antibacterial and comparable antifungal activities. While the chalcone ( 16 ) with a dodecyl chain showed highly promising antibacterial activity against almost all the organisms tested, the chalcone ( 13 ) with nonyl chain showed promising antifungal activity against Candida rugosa and Aspergillus niger strains.