Synthesis antimicrobial and antioxidant studies of new oximes of steroidal chalcones

[Display omitted] •The synthesis of new steroidal oximes and their antimicrobial, antioxidant and MIC studies.•Antimicrobial, antioxidant and MIC studies showed that most of the compounds are having promising activity.•Synthesized steroidal oximes showed enhanced activity than the reported steroidal chalcones.•The results found are of tremendous importance as this opens a new field of research. A convenient synthesis of oximes of steroidal chalcones (4a–4j) was performed and structural assignment of the products was confirmed on the basis of IR, 1HNMR, 13C NMR, MS and analytical data. The synthesized compounds were screened for in vitro antioxidant activity by using DPPH method and in vitro antimicrobial activity against different bacterial and fungal strains by agar diffusion method. The activity of the tested compounds against each microbe varied due to structural differences between them. Presence and position of different substituents on the benzene ring of the chalconyl pendent had a marked effect on the activity of the compounds. From the results it can be inferred that the compounds 4a–j showed significant antioxidant activity and antimicrobial activity against all microbial strains used for testing.