Synthesis of barbituric acid derivatives using microwave irradiation method and in vitro evaluation of antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity.

The research work was involved in rapid and efficient procedure for the attachment of barbituric acid with arylidene acetophenone under microwave irradiation (MWI) and conventional heating. The result showed that the time was reduced from the conventional 24 hours to 5-10 minutes. In conventional heating, the yield of the compounds 2a-2e were very poor (75-81%), but in MW methods the yields were observed 96.48-98% which was comparatively too high. The structures of the compounds were characterized by FT-IR, 1H-NMR spectral data. The antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities of the synthesized compounds were also investigated. Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus megaterium, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa revealed the zone of inhibition were 6-12 mm where sample concentration was 100 μg/disc. However, cytotoxic analysis, the mortality 47-95% were appeared when sample concentration were 0.78-25 (μg/ml) and more than 50 (μg/ml) concentration showed 100% mortality. The presence of a reactive and unsaturated ketone function in synthesized compounds was found to be responsible for their potential antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity.

In vitro antioxidant potential of the essential oil and leaf extracts of Curcuma zedoaria Rosc.

In this study, we examined the chemical composition of the essential oil and tested the antioxidant potential of the oil and leaf extracts of Curcuma zedoaria Rosc. The chemical compositions of the oil were analysed by GCMS. Twenty-four compounds representing 92.4% of the total oil was identified. The antioxidative potential was evaluated using two separate methods, inhibition of free radical 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and superoxide radicals scavenging activities assay. In the first case, the IC50 value of the oil was 14.8 ± 2.2. Among the extracts, the strongest activity was exhibited by the ethyl acetate extract (IC50 = 17.56 ± 1.6 μg/ml). In the superoxide radicals scavenging activities assay, ethyl acetate extract was superior to all other extracts (IC50 = 23.47 ± 1.2 μg/ml). Furthermore, the amount of total phenolic compounds was also determined as gallic acid equivalent. Thus, the natural products produced from C. zedoaria may be used in food and pharmaceutical industries.