Acetonyl esters as antibacterial agents

Two novel acetonyl esters i.e. acetonyl p-hydroxy-benzoate and acetonyl salicylate were synthesized and fully characterized. Considering the very close similarities in the structures of the acetonyl esters and the propyl esters it became desirable to subject these esters to a comparative antibacterial testing. The cup plate method was employed with Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis as test organisms. It was observed that acetonyl p-hydroxy benzoate showed about 45% lesser activity than the corresponding propyl ester. Acetonyl phenyl acetate and acetonyl benzoate also had the same margin of lowered activity over their corresponding propyl esters. Acetonyl salicylate like its corresponding propyl analogue showed no activity against the test organisms.