Design, synthesis, antioxidant and anticholinesterase activities of novel isonicotinic hydrazide-hydrazone derivatives

•A novel series of hydrazide-hydrazones derivatives (1–12) were synthesized and characterizations.•The antioxidant and AChE inhibition potentials of the targeted compounds were examined.•Compound 3 exhibit best antioxidant activity according to DPPH and FRAP methods.•Compound 5 exhibit best inhibitory effect against AChE. The design and synthesis of hydrazone derivatives are increasing in popularity day by day due to the significant biological activities of this scaffold. In the present study, twelve novel isonicotinic hydrazide-hydrazone analogues were synthesized by the condensation reaction of isonicotinic hydrazide with benzaldehyde possessing sulfonate moiety. The structures of the novel compounds have been characterized in detail using spectroscopic techniques. All compounds have shown inhibitory effects against the AChE enzyme at rates ranging from 21.00 to 59.48%. Among them, compound 5 has exhibited the best inhibitory effect of 59.48% against AChE at a concentration of 0.1 mM. Furthermore, to determine how effective the novel compounds are as antioxidants, FRAP and DPPH studies were also carried out. FRAP values in compounds 1–12 were found to range from 26.989–3415.556 µmol FeSO4.7H2O/mg. They also displayed moderate antioxidant potential in the range of SC50=0.03–87.32 mg/mL compared with the control Trolox (SC50 =0.004) in DPPH radical scavenging activities. It was seen that the AChE inhibition percentages of the compounds were in the range of 23.04–58.10% at 0.1 mM concentration. This is the first research on the synthesis, antioxidant and enzyme inhibition properties of these compounds.