Direct synthesis, characterization, in vitro and in silico studies of simple chalcones as potential antimicrobial and antileishmanial agents

Chalcone represents a vital biosynthetic scaffold owing to its numerous therapeutic effects. The present study was intended to synthesize 17 chalcone derivatives ( - ) by direct coupling of substituted acetophenones and benzaldehyde. The target chalcones were characterized by spectroscopic analyses followed by their antimicrobial, and antileishmanial investigations with reference to standard drugs. The majority of the chalcones displayed good to excellent biological activities. Chalcone (1000 µg ml ) exhibited the most potent antibacterial effect with its zone of inhibition values of 30, 33 and 34 mm versus , and respectively. The results also confirmed chalcone to be the most potent versus with the lowest IC value of 0.59 ± 0.12 µg ml . Chalcone (500 µg ml ) was noticed to be the most potent antifungal agent with its zone of inhibition being 29 mm against . Computational studies of chalcones and supported the preliminary results. The existence of the amino moiety and bromine atom on ring-A and methoxy moieties on ring-B caused better biological effects of the chalcones. In brief, the investigations reveal that chalcones ( and ) can be employed as building blocks to discover novel antimicrobial agents.