OBJECTIVE: The present study was aimed to synthesize and evaluate antimicrobial and anticancer activities of Schiff bases of 2-mercaptobenzimidazole.
METHODS: The Schiff bases of 2-mercaptobenzimidazole were synthesized from 4-(2-(1H-benzo[d]- imidazol-2-ylthio)acetamido)benzohydrazide. The synthesized compounds were evaluated for antimicrobial and anticancer activities by tube dilution method and Sulforhodamine-B (SRB) assay, respectively.
RESULTS: Compounds 8 (MICpa, an = 2.41, 1.20 µM/ml), 10 (MICse, sa = 2.50 µM/ml), 20 (MICec = 2.34 µM/ml) and 25 (MICca = 1.46 µM/ml) showed significant antimicrobial activity against tested bacterial and fungal strains and compounds 20 (IC50 = 8 µg/ml) and 23 (IC50 = 7 µg/ml) exhibited significant anticancer activity.
CONCLUSION: In general, the synthesized derivatives exhibited moderate antimicrobial and anticancer activities. Compounds 8 and 25 having high antifungal potential among the synthesized compounds may be taken as lead molecules for the development of novel antifungal agents.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The synthesized benzimidazole compounds were evaluated for their antimicrobial activity using the tube dilution method and were found to exhibit good antimicrobial potential against selected Gram negative and positive bacterial and fungal species. The compounds were also assessed for their anticancer activity exhibited using the SRB assay and were found to elicit antiproliferative activity against MCF7 breast cancer cell line, which was comparable to the standard drug.
CONCLUSION: Antimicrobial screening results indicated that compounds 1, 2 and 19 to be promising antimicrobial agents against selected microbial species and comparable to standard drugs which included norfloxacin and fluconazole. The anticancer screening results revealed that compounds, 12, 21, 22 and 29 to show the highest activity against MCF7 and their IC50 values were more potent than 5-fluorouracil.