Ferrocenyl analogues of bisacodyl: Synthesis and antimicrobial activity

•The antimicrobial activity of bisacodyl, a drug used as laxative, is described for the first time.•Ten original ferrocenyl analogues of bisacodyl have been synthesized using an efficient synthetic procedure.•The evaluation of the antibacterial activity showed that most of these compounds exhibit an excellent inhibitory activity.

The antibacterial activity of bisacodyl, a drug used in therapeutic as laxative is described herein for the first time. Ten original ferrocenyl analogues have been synthesized via an efficient synthetic procedure using the McMurry coupling reaction. The antibacterial activity was investigated against Gram-positive and Gram-negative foodborne pathogens including Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Salmonella enterica, Micrococcus luteus and Staphylococcus aureus. The results showed that most of these compounds exhibit an excellent antimicrobial activity, and the bisacodyl analogues seemed to be more bactericides than bacteriostatic.

Graphical abstractPreparation of organometallic analogues of bisacodyl bearing a ferrocenyl moiety and the study of their antimicrobial potentialities.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide