ESTER DERIVATIVES OF EUGENOL AS POTENTIAL ANTIBACTERIAL AGENT

Abstract

Eugenol (4-allyl-2-methoxyphenol), belonging to phenylpropanoid class of naturally occurring phenols, is well known material for its wide use in dentistry. Beside this, it displayed a wide variety of biological activities including antipyretic, antioxidant, antifungal, analgesic and neuroprotective properties. However, its mechanism of biological action is yet to be discovered and several derivatives of eugenol have been synthesized earlier to augment their valuable bioactive properties. We felt to exploit the presence of hydroxy group in eugenol in making ester derivatives to compare their biological action with eugenol. Accordingly, six ester derivatives of eugenol were synthesized with aromatic acids using DCC/DMAP/pyridine methodology in moderate to good yields and used them in the study of antibacterial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative cultures. Few of them displayed promising antibacterial activity.