An investigation to understand the correlation between the experimental and density functional theory calculations of noscapine

Abstract

AbstractNoscapine has anti‐cancerous properties as it ceases cell division at metaphase stage. It is popular for it's anti‐antitussive properties. Various derivatives of noscapine have significant potential to act as a anticancerous ability than the parent molecule. As noscapine has low toxicity, high bioactivity and good availability, it is being explored extensively. Poor solubility of noscapine has somewhat restricted the use of noscapine. Therefore, authors aim to study the nature of noscapine in different solvents using computational methods or theoretically. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations and time‐dependent density functional theory (TD‐DFT) calculations were performed to explore the electronic structure, infrared spectrum, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum and ultraviolet‐visible spectrum of noscapine. In dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), noscapine had a minimum or least free energy of −8.99 × 105 kcal/mol and a maximum dipole moment of 4.183 debye (D), followed by 2.942 D in chloroform. Physiochemical descriptors indicated that noscapine would interact with other molecules when DMSO or chloroform are taken as a solvent, as its polarizability and acidic character is more in DMSO and chloroform. The ability of noscapine to consume free radicles is also predicted to increase in DMSO. A red shift was observed when noscapine was taken in polar solvents as the energy gap between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) was reduced. The authors also performed linear regression analysis on infrared and carbon‐13 nuclear magnetic resonance (13C‐NMR) spectra obtained from computational and experimental methods to check the correlation in their results.