Synthesis of novel and diverse mollugin analogues and their antibacterial and antioxidant activities

•We synthesized novel and diverse mollugin analogues using PhB(OH)2/AcOH catalyzed electrocyclization reaction as a key step.•We examined the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of synthesized compounds.•All the compounds were active in antibacterial and antioxidant tests.•Compound 2 was found to have greater antioxidant activity than BHT standard.•Compound 3 was highly active against the S. aureus bacterial strain at a level similar to ciprofloxacin.

Novel and diverse mollugin analogues (1–12) were synthesized using PhB(OH)2/AcOH-mediated electrocyclization reaction as a key step. The newly synthesized compounds were screened for antioxidant and antibacterial activities. Compounds 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, and 10–12 showed high antioxidant activities in DPPH inhibition (IC50 = 0.52–1.11 μM) compared with BHT (IC50 = 9.67 μM). Compounds 3 exhibited potent antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (KCTC-1916) bacterial strain at 100 μg/mL. Structures of newly synthesized compounds were confirmed by IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR data and high-resolution mass spectrometry.

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