A comparative study on synthesis of some novel α,β-unsaturated carbonyl derivatives and their antioxidant potential

Free radicals are constantly formed in human system either as accidental products during metabolism or deliberately during the process of phagocytosis or due to environmental pollutants, ionizing radiations, ozone, heavy metal poisoning, etc. It is found from literature survey that chalcones (α,β-unsaturated carbonyl derivatives) exhibit great antioxidant activity. Hence, the synthesis of some new chalcone derivatives was undertaken and were synthesized by two methods namely, conventional and microwave irradiation methods. The synthesized chalcone derivatives were tested for their in vitro antioxidant activity by using NBT-superoxide free-radical scavenging activity and DPPH radical scavenging activity. The potency of the chalcone derivatives was estimated by IC50 values and they have shown promising antioxidant activity. Among all the chalcones synthesized, derivative 3e showed maximum superoxide inhibition as per NBT method and all the derivatives have shown different percentage inhibitions at different concentrations as per DPPH method. The compounds were characterized by 1H NMR and IR spectral analysis.