Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Novel Bischalcone Derivatives as Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibitors.

Design and synthesis of a new type of bischalcones as an alternative to natural and synthetic bischalcones are reported for the first time. Key steps involved the solvent-free Claisen-Schmidt condensation of chalcones, and the successful first application of the diazotization-diazocoupling reaction in the synthesis of CNNC-linked bischalcones by simple structural modification of p-aminoacetophenone. The structures of all compounds were confirmed by means of FT-IR, (1) H and (13) C NMR, ESI/MS, and elemental analysis. In addition, the newly synthesized compounds were screened for carbonic anhydrase inhibition activities. Almost all bischalcones exhibited moderate-to-good inhibitory activities.