Conformational analysis of substituted (E)-4-phenylbut-3-en-2-ones

The biological role of many medical herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine has already been studied. The antimutagenic activity of BZ's ((E)-4-phenylbut-3-en-2-ones) derivatives isolated from Scutellaria barbata was quantitatively analyzed in term of physicochemical parameters. Popelier et al. carried out a quantum topological molecular similarity study on a set of 15 phenylbutenone derivatives. The equilibrium geometries of the molecules in question were determined at the HF/6-31G(d) level of theory. According to their results, all the trial conformations collapsed to the planar configuration with C, symmetry. This short paper presents that at the second order Moller-Plesset level of theory at least two chiral conformers exist in each case. Of the set of 15 phenylbutenone derivatives, two representative examples were chosen to demonstrate the results of the conformational analysis. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.