Inhibitory effect of thiourea derivatives on the growth of blue-green algae.

High nutrient loading in aquatic environment has become the main causative of harmful algae blooms (HABs) in water resources particularly pond, lake and river. HABs are mostly dominated by microalgae derived from the group of blue-green algae which are capable of releasing harmful toxins. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the inhibitory effects of thiourea derivatives on the growth of such blue-green algae. Thiourea derivatives have been proven to exhibit antifungal and antibacterial effects. However, there is still limited study had been conducted on the effect of thiourea derivatives toward blue-green algae species in recent years. In this research, a species of blue-green algae from Kenyir Lake, Terengganu, Malaysia was successfully isolated using morphological characters and molecularly identified as Synechoccus elongatus. Four new thiourea derivative compounds were also successfully synthesised. The compounds were designed with variation on different R-substitution group and characterised using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) to confirm their molecular structure. Those compounds were characterised as 1-Benzyl-3-(3,5-dimethoxy-benzoyl)-thiourea (C1), 1-(3-Chloro-benzyl)-3-(3,5-dimethoxy-benzoyl)-thiourea (C2), 1-(3,5-Dimethoxy-benzoyl)-3-(3-methyl-benzyl)-thiourea (C3) and 1-(3,5-Dimethoxy-benzoyl)-3-(3-trifluoromethyl-benzyl)-thiourea (C4). For the inhibition assessment,S. elongatus were treated with C1-C4 for 5 day at concentration of 2, 5, 10 and 20 µg/ml, respectively. C3 compound showed the highest inhibition percentage with 98% of inhibition after 5 days treatment. By using Bradford method, protein extraction of S. elongatus was conducted at the highest inhibition percentage. Protein concentration of treated species was observed with 3.28 µg/ml as compared to protein concentration of control with 6.48 µg/ml. This result indicated the reduction of protein content after the treatment. Protein band pattern was identified intensed after the treatment SDS PAGE was carried out. The thiourea derivatives compound proved to have successfully inhibited the growth of blue-green algae. Hence, further study should be carried out to ensure the compound can be practically utilized in the pond and in natural environment.

Structural, Hirshfeld and DFT studies of conjugated D-π-A carbazole chalcone crystal.

A new conjugated carbazole chalcone compound, (E)-3-[4-(9,9a-di-hydro-8aH-carbazol-9-yl)phen-yl]-1-(4-nitro-phen-yl)prop-2-en-1-one (CPNC), C27H18N2O3, was synthesized using a Claisen-Schmidt condensation reaction. CPNC crystallizes in the monoclinic non-centrosymmetric space group Cc and adopts an s-cis conformation with respect to the ethyl-enic double bonds (C=O and C=C). The crystal packing features C-H⋯O and C-H⋯π inter-actions whose percentage contribution was qu-anti-fied by Hirshfeld surface analysis. Quantum chemistry calculations including geometrical optimization and mol-ecular electrostatic potential (MEP) were analysed by density functional theory (DFT) with a B3LYP/6-311 G++(d,p) basis set.

Crystal structure and optical properties of fused-ring chalcone (E)-3-(anthracen-9-yl)-1-(4-nitro-phen-yl)prop-2-en-1-one.

The title compound, C23H15NO3, adopts an s-cis conformation with respect to the ethyl-ene C=C and carbonyl C=O double bonds in the enone unit. The mol-ecule is significantly twisted with a dihedral angle of 48.63 (14)° between the anthracene ring system and the benzene ring. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked into inversion dimers with an R 2 2(10) graph-set motif via pairs of C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds. The inter-molecular inter-actions were analysed and qu-anti-fied by Hirshfeld surface analysis. The mol-ecular structure was optimized and a small HOMO-LUMO energy gap of 2.55 eV was obtained using the DFT method at the B3LYP/6-311 G++(d,p) level of theory. This value is in close agreement with the experimental value of 2.52 eV obtained from the UV-vis analysis. The crystal used was a two-component merohedral twin with a refined ratio of 0.1996 (16):0.8004 (16).

Crystal structure and optical spectroscopic analyses of (E)-3-(1H-indol-2-yl)-1-(4-nitro-phen-yl)prop-2-en-1-one hemihydrate.

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, 2C17H12N2O3·H2O comprises two mol-ecules of (E)-3-(1H-indol-2-yl)-1-(4-nitro-phen-yl)prop-2-en-1-one and a water mol-ecule. The main mol-ecule adopts an s-cis configuration with respect to the C=O and C=C bonds. The dihedral angle between the indole ring system and the nitro-substituted benzene ring is 37.64 (16)°. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked by O--H⋯O and N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming chains along [010]. In addition, weak C-H⋯O, C-H⋯π and π-π inter-actions further link the structure into a three-dimensional network. The optimized structure was generated theoretically via a density functional theory (DFT) approach at the B3LYP/6-311 G++(d,p) basis level and the HOMO-LUMO behaviour was elucidated to determine the energy gap. The obtained values of 2.70 eV (experimental) and 2.80 eV (DFT) are desirable for optoelectronic applications. The inter-molecular inter-actions were qu-anti-fied and analysed using Hirshfeld surface analysis.