Affiliation:
1. Research Centre for Synthesis and Catalysis Department of Chemical Sciences University of Johannesburg P.O. Box 524 Auckland Park, Johannesburg 2006 South Africa
2. Department of Chemistry Faculty of Natural Science and Agricultural Science University of Pretoria Private Bag X20 Hatfield 0028 Pretoria South Africa
3. Department of Chemistry University of South Africa Florida Science Campus Johannesburg 1709 South Africa
4. Department of Biochemistry Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences Nile University of Nigeria Nigeria
Abstract
AbstractHydrazone‐type Schiff bases have been widely explored owing to their therapeutic properties. These compounds are known to have antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, and antioxidant properties, among others. In the present study, six hydrazone‐based Schiff bases (BB1–BB6) were synthesized by the reaction between derivatives of benzaldehyde and benzo hydrazide in methanolic medium in the presence of catalytic amount of formic acid. The synthesized compounds were characterized using various spectroscopic techniques such as NMR (1H, 13C, COSY, DEPT, HSQC, HMBC, and NOESY), FTIR, UV‐Vis, elemental (CHN) analysis, and high‐resolution mass spectroscopy. In addition, single crystal structures of BB2, BB4, and BB6 were obtained. In vitro antidiabetic and antioxidant potential of the compounds was evaluated on glucosidase, amylase, NO, FRAP, and DPPH assays, respectively. In all the assays, compounds BB6, BB4, and BB2 showed higher activity than the others. To further explore the chemical reactivity properties and their mechanism of action against the tested assays, DFT and molecular docking study were performed, and the results obtained reinforce the experimental study data.