In this work we report the antibacterial activity of alkylaminophenols. A series of such compounds was prepared by a multicomponent Petasis-borono Mannich reaction starting from salicylaldehyde and its derivatives. The obtained compounds were tested against a large panel of microorganisms, Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, and a yeast. Among the several tertiary amine derivatives tested, indoline-derived aminophenols containing a nitro group at the para-phenol position showed considerable activity against bacteria tested with minimal inhibitory concentrations as low as 1.36 μm against Staphyloccocus aureus and Mycobacterium smegmatis. Cytotoxicity of the new para-nitrophenol derivatives was observed only at concentrations much higher than those required for antibacterial activity.
Keywords: alkylaminophenols; antibacterial activity; multicomponent reactions; structure-activity relationships.
© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.