The effective interactions of fuchsine and Pararosaniline as two bioactive compounds in different solvent media: A comparative study

•The spectral features of triarylmethanes are evaluated by spectroscopic and DFT methods.•The spectral features of triarylmethanes depend on the solvent media interactions.•Solvent basicity is the effective parameter of solvent media for triarylmethanes.•The variations of ground and excited state dipole moments show that ICT occurs.•Application of triarylmethanes in biological systems based on the obtained results. In this paper, the possibility of interactions between the solvent molecules with two bioactive compounds was studied. Linear solvation energy relationship models of Kamlet–Abboud–Taft and Catalán for the evaluation of the spectral variations and the solvatochromic method for measuring the dipole moments were considered. It was observed that the solvent basicity is the effective factor in controlling the spectral features of the studied bioactive compounds. The dipole moment values in the ground and excited states indicate the occurrence of intramolecular charge transfer. Density Functional Theory calculations may help to understand experimental observations instead. Solvent accessible surface facilitated better evaluation of the active sites. These findings can help scientists and pharmacists in designing new medicines or/and their suitable utilization method. [Display omitted]