Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel curcumin analogues as anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and anti-oxidant agents

A series of novel curcumin analogues 5a–m were synthesized by Claisen-Schmidt condensation of various aromatic and heteroaromatic amides of 3-aminoactophenones 4a–m with 3-bromo-2,4,6-trimethoxybenzaldehyde and characterized by IR, 1H NMR and mass spectroscopic analysis and were evaluated for anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and anti-oxidant activity. Out of the 13 synthesized compounds, compounds 5f, 5j and 5m were excellent inhibitors of TNF-α and IL-6. Compounds 5c, 5e, 5b and 5d showed potent COX-2 inhibition, compounds 5d and 5f have shown good trypsin inhibition and compounds 5e, 5g and 5c exhibited excellent β-glucuronidase inhibition. Compounds 5l and 5m showed potent anti-cancer activity against selected five human cancer cell lines. All the compounds exhibited moderate free radical scavenging activity, while compounds 5a and 5m were excellent OH radical scavengers.