L-proline catalyzed green synthesis and anticancer evaluation of novel bioactive benzil bis-hydrazones under grinding technique

Abstract

L-Proline organocatalyst was investigated as an efficient and environmentally benign catalyst for synthesis of some novel bioactive benzil bis(2-cyano-3-aryl-2-propenoylhydrazone) derivatives from reaction of the benzil bis(cyanoacetylhydrazone) with the respective aldehydes. The reusability of the L-proline was tested and the results revealed that the recovered catalyst can be reused at least three additional times in subsequent reactions without significant decrease in product yield. The current protocol is very efficient as it provides mild reaction, cleaner reaction profiles, effortless work phase with outstanding purity, and with short reaction time, high performance of the desired products. IR, 1H-NMR and MS and alternative methods, whenever available, have verified the chemical structures of the newly prepared compounds. Compared to the Doxorubicin reference drug using the MTT assay, the in vitro growth inhibitory activity of ten new compounds was investigated against the liver carcinoma cell line (HepG-2) and the findings revealed promising activities of six derivatives.