Synthesis, antibacterial activities, cytotoxicity, and molecular docking studies of Salicyledene derivatives

Abstract

A series of Schiff bases (1–15) were synthesized by reacting salicylaldehyde with series of primary amines. Their chemical structures were characterized using 1H NMR, 13C{H} NMR, FTIR and CHN-elemental analyses. Antibacterial activities against eleven strains of bacteria showed that all the compounds exhibited good antibacterial activities at different concentration levels. From the minimum inhibitory concentration and cytotoxicity studies, compounds 4, 12 and 15 were selected as the most potent potential drug candidates against Bacillus subtilis (BS), Enterococcus faecalis (EF), Staphylococcus aureus (SA) and Proteus mirabilis (PM). The presence of pyridine and morpholine subunits in compounds 4 and 12 as well as 15, was found to be responsible for the greater degree of potency recorded for these compounds as also confirmed using computational and molecular docking studies.