Substituted phenylhydrazone moieties and two carbonate groups were merged in one molecule scaffold to obtain 48 novel compounds. 1H and 13C NMR, MS, elemental analysis, and X-ray single-crystal diffraction were used to confirm their structures. Bioassay results revealed that some of the compounds have strong antifungal activities against Botrytis cinerea, Rhizoctonia solani, and Colletotrichum capsici (especially Rhizoctonia solani). Compound 5H1 is the most promising of the tested compounds against R. solani with an EC50 value of 1.91 mg/L, which is comparable with the positive control fungicide drazoxolon (1.94 mg/L). The structure-activity relationships against R. solani formed three rules: 1) small carbonate groups may improve the antifungal activity of the title compounds; 2) electron-withdrawing groups at the phenyl ring of phenylhydrazone are preferable to their non-substituted counterparts; and 3) halogen at the para position is more beneficial than at the ortho or meta position.
Keywords: antifungal activity; carbonic acid ester; phenylhydrazone; structure-activity relationships.