Synthesis and Antibacterial Activity of Hydroxy and Chloro-Substituted Chalcone Derivatives

Chalcones are a class of natural products reported with a wide range of biological activities. Among them antibacterial is much promising and many potent chalcones have been emerged as useful antibacterial agents. In view of this, we synthesized 15 chalcones (3a-3o) containing both hydroxyl and chlorine substituents and studied them by using spectroscopic methods. The compounds were tested for antibacterial efficacy against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, and Proteus vulgaris, among other harmful microorganisms. The compounds have moderate to high antibacterial activity, among them heteroaromatic ring containing compounds (3m, 3n, and 3o) elicited higher activity than the standard drug benzyl penicillin. The compound 3m having the pyridinyl compound displayed the maximum activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, and Proteus vulgaris, with zone of inhibition (in mm) values of 27.52±0.16, 28.85±0.11, 22.05±0.16, and 23.18±0.17, respectively. The synthesized compounds could be used as lead molecules in the development of novel antibacterial medicines.