CHALCONE AS A VERSATILE MOIETY FOR DIVERSE PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES

CHALCONE AS A VERSATILE MOIETY FOR DIVERSE PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES

Hatish Prashar*, Anshul Chawla, Anil Kumar Sharma and Rajeev Kharb

CT Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Jalandhar, Punjab, India

ABSTRACT

Chalcones are 1, 3-diphenyl-2-propene-1-one, consist of two aromatic rings linked by a three carbon α, β-unsaturated carbonyl system. The chemistry of chalcones has generated intensive scientific studies throughout the world. Especially interest has been focused on the synthesis and biodynamic activities of chalcones. These are considered to be precursors of flavonoids and isoflavonoids. The aim of this review is to summarize chalcones and their diverse pharmacological activities like anticancer, antimicrobial, analgesic and antiviral activities etc.

Antimalarial Activities

INTRODUCTION:   Chalcones are well known intermediates for synthesizing various heterocyclic compounds. The compounds with the backbone of chalcones have been reported to possess various biological activities such as antimicrobial,  anti-inflammatory,  analgesic,  antiplatel, antiulcerative,antimalarial, anticancer, antiviral, antileishmanial, Antioxidant,Antitubercular,  antihyperglycemic, activities. The presence of a reactive & unsatutated keto function in chalcones is found to be responsible for their antimicrobial activity.

In the present communication, we report the reaction of various acetophenone derivatives with different aromatic aldehyde derivatives to form chalcones. The structures of the various synthesized compounds were assigned on the basis of IR, 1H-NMR spectral data and elemental analysis. These compounds were also screened for their antimicrobial activity. Chalcone constitute an impartment group of natural products and some of them possess a wide range of biological activities such as antimicrobial ¹ anticancer ² antitubercular ³.

The general Method of synthesis of chalcone as shown below:

Physical Properties of Chalcone: The physical properties of chalcone are as follows:-

Molecular formula    :           C₁₅H₁₂O

Molar mass                :           208.26 g mol⁻¹

Exact mass                 :           208.088815

Density                       :           1.071 g/cm³

Melting point             :           55–57 °C

Boiling point               :           345-348 °C

Pharmacological Activities of Chalcone: Chalcones and its derivatives have attracted particular interest during the last few decades due to use of such ring system as the core structure in many drug substances covering wide range of pharmacological activities which are further discussed below:-

Antimicrobial Activity: Nagaini et al., successfully synthesized anew homologues series of chalcone derivatives as antimicrobial agents and the anti- bacterial activity against E. coli where the presence of hydroxyl group at the ortho position(1) showed better antimicrobial activities as compared to para position(2) ⁴.

A series of 40 substituted chalcones were synthesized and tested byNowakowska et al.,for their in vitro antibacterial and antifungal activities. Among the (E)-4-aminoalkylthiochalcones and (E)-4-aminoalkoxy-chalcones tested, compounds 3, 4 and 5 exhibited good antibacterial property against Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis and Bacillus subtilis ⁵.

The efficient and facile synthesis of 17-chalconyl derivatives of pregnenolone and their evaluation as antimicrobial agents were screened by Abid et al ⁶.

Swamy et al., reportedthe antimicrobial activity of 3-hydroxy benzofuran substituted chalcones. It was evident that most of the compounds are very weakly active and few are moderately active against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli but compounds 7c, 7d possessed very good activity against fungi Aspergillus flavus and compound 7b showed moderate activity ⁷.

Mayekar et al., reported that a series of chalcones and its cyclohexenone derivatives were derived from 6-methoxy-2-naphthaldehyde. The compounds 8b and 8c showed comparatively good activity against all the bacterial and fungal strains like Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Penicillium marneffei, T. mentagrophytes, A. flavus and A. fumigates when compared to standard drugs like Ampicillin, Itraconazole ⁸.

Liaras et al., synthesized a new class of structurally novel derivatives, that incorporate two known bioactive structures a thiazole and chalcone, to yield a class of compounds with interesting antimicrobial properties and antifungal properties and evaluation of antibacterial activity showed that almost all the compounds 9a-j exhibited greater activity than reference drugs and thus could be promising novel drug candidates ⁹.

Nielsen et al.,investigatedthe antibacterial activity of hydroxy chalcones that were observed and the low aqueous solubility and the medium antibacterial potency have limited the usefulness of the compounds. They described the bioisosteric replacement of the essential 4′-hydroxy group in the hydroxy chalcones with bioisosters of varied degrees of acidity resulting in both more potent and more soluble compounds. The more acidic 4′-hydroxy analogues (e.g., 3′-fluoro- or 3′, 5′-difluoro-) gave almost inactive compounds whereas exchanging the hydroxy group with a carboxy group resulted in a potent compound with a high aqueous solubility. Further optimisation and SAR-analysis resulted in soluble and potent carboxy chalcones [e.g., 3, 5-dibromo- and 3, 5-di(trifluoromethyl)-] ¹⁰.

The antibacterial activity of thirty-one chalones were described byÁvila et al.,against bacterial strains, Bacillus cereus ATCC 11778, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923. Some of the tested compounds showed fair to significant activity against Gram-positive bacteria¹¹.

Chitra et al.,synthesized four copolyesters from 3,3-(1,4-phenylene)bis(1-(4-hydroxyphenyl)prop-2-en-1-one (THAP) and 3,3-(1,4-phenylene)bis(1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)prop-2-en-1-one (TMAP). These copolyesters displayed potential bactericidal activity against pathogenic bacteria¹².

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Bhatia et al., synthesizedsome mini librarieswhich screened for antibacterial activity. The mini-libraries 15{1a, 2a–d}, 15{1b, 2a–d}, 15{1a–f, 2a} and 15{1a–f, 2c} were found to be most active of the synthesized mini libraries. The compound 3-(4-chlorophenyl)-1-(4-methoxyphenyl)prop-2-en-1-one exhibited significant activity that was better than that of the other three compounds synthesized¹³.

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Nitrogen and sulfur heterocyclic mimics of furanoflavonoids synthesized and screened for antibacterial activity byYadav et al ¹⁴.

Some novel compounds were evaluated by Mokle et al.,for their antibacterial activity and studied the effect on seed germination of wheat (Triticum aestivum). It was found that compound 21e, 21f, 21g, 22b, 22e, 22f and 22gexhibited good antibacterial activity against all bacteria at a concentration of 100µg/ml ¹⁵.

A series of new 3-[4-(1H-imidazol-1-yl)phenyl]prop-2-en-1-ones were synthesized byHussain et al.,and the compounds were subjected to preliminary evaluation for the anti-fungal activity. Few of the synthesized compounds showed significant activities ¹⁶.

Antileishmanial Activity: Paula et al.,were studied the eighteen analogues of an active natural chalcone were synthesized using xanthoxyline and some derivatives, and these analogues were tested for selective activity against both promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes of Leishmania amazonensis in vitro. Three analogues (23a, 23b, and 23c) containing nitro, fluorine or bromine groups, respectively, displayed increased selective activity against the parasites as compared with the natural chalcone.

The nitrosylated chalcone 23a was also tested intralesionally in infected mice and was found to be as effective as Pentostan reference drug at a dose 100 times higher than that of the chalcone in controlling both the lesion growth and the parasite burden ¹⁷.

One new amide (24) as well as two known chalcones and one known flavanone were isolated from P. hispidum leaves by Ruiz et al. The results showed that the known chalcone exhibited the most potent antileishmanial activity with an IC₅₀ of 0.8 μM (amphotericin B: IC₅₀ = 0.2 μM) ¹⁸.

Carla et al., showed a new set of sulfonamide 4-methoxychalcone derivatives (25a–25i) were synthesized and which shown antileishmanial activity against Leishmania braziliensis promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes and determined its cell toxicity profile. Interestingly all compounds presented a concentration-dependent antileishmanial profile and the benzylamino derivative (25i) showed a biological activity better than pentamidine ¹⁹.

A series of chalcones polyoxygenated on the ring A (with pentamethoxy or 2′-hydroxy-3′, 4′, 5′, 6′-tetramethoxy substitution patterns) was synthesized from tangeretin, a natural Citrus flavonoid. These chalcones were evaluated byQuintin et al.,for their antiproliferative, activation of apoptosis, inhibition of tubulin assembly and antileishmanial activities.

Comparison with the reference analogous 3′, 4′, 5′-trimethoxylated chalcones showed that such peroxygenated substitution patterns on the ring A were less beneficial to these activities ²⁰.

Anticancer Activity: Tavares et al.,evaluateda series of new 6-quinolinyl and Quinolinyl N-oxide Chalcones were efficiently prepared by synthesized all chalcones were tested by minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) against three species of Candida, Cryptococcus gattii and Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. The effect of these compounds was also tested on the survival and growth of the human cancer cell lines UACC-62 (melanoma), MCF-7 (breast), TK-10 (renal) and leukemic cells, Jurkat and HL60.The leukemic cells the compounds 28f, 27g, 28g and 29g have shown the best activity ²¹.

A series of novel coumarin–chalcone hybrids were synthesized and evaluated bySivakumar et al.,for their cytotoxicity compound 30 showed around 30-fold more selectivity towards C33A (cervical carcinoma) cells over normal fibroblast NIH3T3 cells ²².

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The Synthesized chalcones and their antitumoral activity were studied on HepG2 hepatocellular carcinoma cells and dose-dependent inhibition of cell proliferation by Echeverria et al ²³.

Kumar et al., synthesized a series of indolyl chalcones and evaluated in vitro for their anticancer activity against three human cancer cell lines. Compounds 32b–d, 32h, 32j, 32l, 32m, 33g, and 33j showed significant cytotoxicity, particularly, indolyl chalcones 32i and 32m were identified as the most potent and selective anticancer agents with IC₅₀ values 0.03 and 0.09 μM, against PaCa-2 cell line, respectively ²⁴.

Novel (E)-α-benzylthio chalcones were reported by Reddy et al.,with preliminary in vitro activity  and indicating that several of them are potent inhibitors (comparable to imatinib, the reference compound) of BCR-ABL phosphorylation in leukemic K562 cells, known to express high levels of BCR-ABL. The ability of such compounds to significantly inhibit K562 cell proliferation suggests that this scaffold could be a promising lead for the development of anticancer agents that are able to block BCR-ABL phosphorylation in leukemic cells ²⁵.

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A new series of benzofuran-2-yl(4, 5-diydro-3, 5-substituted diphenylpyrazol-1-yl) methanone derivatives were synthesized by  Parekh et aland showed their antiproliferative activitystudied against human cancer cell lines. Compounds a,b,c were exhibited good MDR reversal activity²⁶.

The synthesized N-Methylpiperidinylchalcones were investigated for antiproliferative activity against human tumour cell linesby Liu et al ²⁷.

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Romagnoli et al., showed that two novel large series of α-bromoacryloylamido chalcones 37a–m the most promising lead molecules were 37k, 37m and 37j, which had the highest activity toward the five cell lines Moreover, compound 37k induced apoptosis through the mitochondrial pathway and activated caspase-3²⁸.

The synthesized compounds 38a–v was studied against human cancer cell lines byParekh et al.,  for their antiproliferative activity and reversal of multidrug resistance on human MDR1-gene transfected mouse lymphoma cells. Among the 24 compounds, the 38c and 38h showed good antiproliferative activity 38b, 38f and 38k were exhibited good MDR reversal activity. The main significance of the process is easy workup process, short reaction time and high yield of the new compounds for biological interest. However, the studies on genetically modified multidrug resistant cancer cells are costly and time consuming ²⁹.

Rao et al.,reporteda series of twenty three 3′,4′,5′-trimethoxychalcone analogues  as inhibitors of  nitric oxide (NO) production in LPS/IFN-γ-treated macrophages, and tumor cell proliferation. 4-Hydroxy-3,3′,4′,5′-tetramethoxychalcone (7), 3,4-dihydroxy-3′,4′,5′-trimethoxychalcone (11), 3-hydroxy-3′,4,4′,5′-tetramethoxychalcone, and 3, 3′,4′, 5′-tetramethoxy chalcone  were the most potent growth inhibitory agents on NO production, with an IC₅₀ value of 0.3, 1.5, 1.3 and 0.3 μM, respectively.

The chalcone 39 was the most potent anti-proliferative compound in the series with IC₅₀ values of 1.8 and 2.2 μM toward liver cancer Hep G2 and colon cancer Colon 205 cell lines, respectively. 2, 3, 3′, 4′, 5′-Pentamethoxy chalcone, 3, 3′, 4, 4′, 5, 5′-hexamethoxychalcone, 2, 3′, 4, 4′, 5, 5′-hexamethoxychalcone, 2-hydroxy-3, 3′, 4′, 5′-tetramethoxychalcone and showed significant anti-proliferation actions in Hep G2 and Colon 205 cells with an IC₅₀ values ranging between 10 and 20 μM³⁰.

Tavares et al., reported a series of new 6-quinolinyl and quinolinyl N-oxide chalcones were efficiently preparedby synthesized all chalcones were tested by minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) against three species of Candida, Cryptococcus gattii and Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. The effect of these compounds was also tested on the survival and growth of the human cancer cell lines UACC-62 (melanoma), MCF-7 (breast), TK-10 (renal) and leukemic cells, Jurkat and HL60. The cytotoxic activity showed that compounds 40c and 41e, presented the best activity against MCF-7   and   TK-10 ²¹.

The conjugates of α,β-unsaturated ketone systems, phenyl-butenone and diaryl-propenones (chalcones), with the tricyclic planar pyrroloquinoline nucleus were synthesised and evaluated by Via et al.,for their anticancer properties. The effect on the activity of the nuclear enzyme DNA topoisomerase II was also investigated. A noticeable cytotoxic effect was observed for all pyrroloquinoline-conjugated compounds particularly against human melanoma cell line JR8 (IC₅₀ 1.2–3.3 μM); the unconjugated chalcones and butenone had a lower or no effect at the tested concentrations ³¹.

Reddy et al.,synthesized a series of novel bichalcone analogs and evaluated in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated microglial cells as inhibitors of nitric oxide (NO) and for in vitro anticancer activity using a limited panel of four human cancer cell lines. All analogs inhibited NO production. Compounds 46 exhibited optimal activity with IC₅₀ values of 0.3 and 0.5 μM, respectively, and were at least 38-fold better than the positive control.

Compound 46 and 47 exerted significant in vitro anticancer activity GI₅₀ values ranging from 0.70 to 13.10 μM. A mode of action study using HT-29 colon cancer cells showed that 47 acts by inducing apoptosis signaling³².

Reddy et al.,showed that the Mannich bases of heterocyclic chalcones were synthesized (48), and tested the target compounds for cytotoxicity against three human cancer cell lines (prostate, PC-3; breast, MCF-7; nasopharynx, KB) and a multi-drug resistant subline (KB-VIN). Out of the chalcone synthesized, compound showed potent activity against at least one cell line with IC₅₀ values ranging from 0.03 to3.80 μg/mL³³.

A series of 12 new Mannich bases with chalcone core structure were synthesized as potential antineoplastic agents, via N-aminomethylation of two parent 6-(3-aryl-2-propenoyl)-2(3H)-benzoxazolones. The newly synthesized compounds as well as the chalcone prototypes were evaluated by Lvanoya et al.,for cytotoxicity in the human pre-B-cell leukemia cell line BV-173 using the MTT-dye reduction assay.

The tested compounds exhibited concentration-dependent cytotoxic effects at low micromolar concentrations. Selected Mannich bases induced programmed cell death in BV-173 at a concentration of 2.5 μM as evidenced by the encountered DNA-laddering³⁴.

49

A novel (E)-α-benzylthio chalcones were synthesized and reported by Reddy et al.,with preliminary in vitro activity data indicating that several of them are potent inhibitors (comparable to imatinib, the reference compound) of BCR-ABL phosphorylation in leukemic K562 cells, known to express high levels of BCR-ABL. The ability of such compounds to significantly inhibit K562 cell proliferation suggests that this scaffold could be a promising lead for the development of anticancer agents that are able to block BCR-ABL phosphorylation in leukemic cells²⁵.

50

A series of novel chalcone linked imidazolones were synthesized and evaluated byKamal et al., for their anti-cancer activity against a panel of 53 human tumour cell lines derived from nine different cancer types: leukemia, lung, colon, CNS, melanoma, ovarian, renal, prostate and breast. Some of these (51a, 51b and 51c) showed good anti-cancer activity with GI₅₀ values ranging from 1.26 to 13.9 μM³⁵.

Sayed et al., reported a new series of sulfonamide derivatives of [1, 3, 4]thiadiazolo[3, 2-a]pyrimidine were formed and investigated as antitumor agents. Some of the newly prepared compounds were tested for their in vitro and in vivo antitumor activities. Preliminary biological studies revealed that compounds 52c, 52f, and 52j exhibited the highest affinity to DNA, while compounds 52h,i, 53a–c, 54 and 55 exhibited moderate activity when copared to 5-flurouracil³⁶.

The substituted chalcones formed and targeted compounds were screened byRao et al.,for their biological activity. Among them, compounds 56 and 57 displayed a significant growth inhibitory action against a panel of tumor cell lines including Jurkat, PC-3, and Colon 205. On treatment with an equitoxic (IC₅₀) concentration, another two compounds blocked cells in the G2/M phase of the Jurkat cell cycle, whereas one compound blocked the same in the G0/G1 phase ³⁷.

Antioxidant Activity: Susanne et al.,synthesized the 3′-coumaroyl-2′, 4, 4′-trihydroxy-6′-methoxychalcone (58), were structurally derived from helichrysetin. Compound 58 showed the highest cytotoxic activity against HeLa cells with an IC₅₀ value of 7.3 ± 0.4 μM. Anti-oxidative effects were determined in the ORAC assay and revealed very strong activity for 58³⁸.

58

Cytotoxicity against tumor cell lines may be the result of disruption of the cell cycle, inhibition of angio-genesis, interference with p53-MDM2 interaction, mitochondrial uncoupling or induction of apoptosis wereChemoprotection by chalcones may be a consequence of their antioxidant properties mediated via inhibition or induction of metabolic enzymes, by an anti-invasive effect or a reduction in nitric oxide production. All the chalcones 59(a-e) were tested by Ahmed et al., for cytotoxic activity by the BSLT bioassay method. All the compounds were found to possess cytotoxic activity. Among them, compounds 59a, 59c showed dose dependent cytotoxic activity at concentrations of (59a) 24.27μg/ml, (59c) 37.05μg/ml, respectively. Podophyllotoxin is used as a standard drug for BSLT assay method³⁹.

A series of 2′-hydroxy-chalcones (60) and their oxidative cyclization products, aurones (61), were synthesized and tested by Detsi et al.,for their antioxidant and lipoxygenase inhibitory activity. Aurones possess an appealing pharmacological profile combining high antioxidant and lipid peroxidation activity with potent soybean LOX inhibition ⁴⁰.

Antimalarial Activity: The synthesized chalcone derivatives were characterized and screened by Tomar et al.,for in vitro antimalarial activity against Plasmodium falciparum NF-54. All the chalcones showed complete inhibition at concentration of 10μg/mL and above while three compounds showed significant inhibition at concentration of 2μg/mL. The three most active chalcone derivatives were screened for in vivo activity as well, but no significant inhibition in parasitaemia was observed when given intraperitoneally to Plasmodium yoelii infected mice model⁴¹.

The chalcones, a new class of glycosidase inhibitors were synthesized and their glycosidase inhibitory activities were investigated by Seo et al., Non-aminochalcones had no inhibitory activity, however, aminochalcones had strong glycosidase (α-glucosidase, α-amylase, and β-amylase) inhibitory activities. In particular, sulfonamide chalcones had more potent α-glucosidase inhibitory activity than aminated chalcone. 4′-(p-Toluenesulfonamide)-3, 4-dihydroxy chalcone (IC₅₀ = 0.4 μM) was the best inhibitor against α-glucosidase, and these sulfonamide chalcones showed non-competitive inhibition⁴².

Eric et al.,studied a targeted series of chalcone and dienone hybrid compounds containing aminoquinoline and nucleoside templates was synthesized and evaluated for in vitro antimalarial activity. Several chalcone-chloroquinoline hybrid compounds were found to be notably active, with compound 65the most active, exhibiting submicromolar IC₅₀ values against the D10, Dd2 and W2 strains of Plasmodium falciparum⁴³.

Acharya et al., were synthesized a series of 1, 3, 5-trisubstituted pyrazolines and evaluated for in vitro antimalarial efficacy against chloroquine sensitive (MRC-02) as well as chloroquine resistant (RKL9) strains of Plasmodium falciparum. The activity was at nano molar concentration. β-hematin formation inhibition activity (BHIA₅₀) of the pyrazolines were determined and correlated with antimalarial activity. A reasonably good correlation (r = 0.62) was observed between antimalarial activity (IC₅₀) and BHIA₅₀. This suggested that antimalarial mode of action of this class of compounds appears to be similar to that of chloroquine and involves the inhibition of hemozoin formation. Some of the compounds showed better antimalarial activity than chloroquine against resistant strain of P. falciparum and were also found active in the in vivo experiment⁴⁴.

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Analgesic Activity: A series of diazipine, pyrimidine, fused triazolopyrimidine and imide derivatives were newly synthesized bySaid et al.,using 4-phenyl-but-3-en-2-one as a starting material. Initially the acute toxicity of the compounds was assayed via the determination of their LD₅₀. All the compounds were interestingly less toxic than the reference drug. The pharmacological screening showed that many of these obtained compounds have good analgesic activity comparable to Valdecoxib^®, Carbamazepine^® and Predensilone^® as reference drugs⁴⁵.

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Chalcones or 1, 3-diaryl-2-propen-1-ones are known to be useful for treating pain, inflammation, and certain diseases although their uses have not been scientifically verified. Due to the limitations of opioid and NSAID therapy, there is a continuing search for new analgesics. A series of novel new 1-phenyl-3-{4-[(2E)-3-phenylprop-2-enoyl]phenyl}-thiourea and urea derivatives were synthesized and evaluated against writhing test in mice by Santos et al ⁴⁶.

Keri et al., reported a novel series of 4-[4-(6-phenyl-pyrimidin-4-yl)-phenoxymethyl]-chromen-2-ones 69–71(a–e) were synthesized and the synthesized compounds shown in-vivo analgesic activities at a dose of 25 and 100 mg/kg body weight (b.w), respectively. Among them, compounds 69(d), 70(c) and 71(d) exhibited significant analgesic activity comparable with standard drug analgin using Tail-flick model⁴⁷.

Anti-inflammatory Activity: Louise et al.,synthesized chalcones derived from 2, 4, 6-trimethoxy acetophenone which shown inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) production by altering the expression of induced enzymes and induced anti-inflammatory activity. The mean IC₅₀ values, calculated through dose versus inhibitory effect curves, in four independent experiments, varied between 1.34 and 27.60 μM, and were compared with the positive control, compound 1400W (IC₅₀ = 3.78 μM), a highly selective inhibitor of iNOS (induced nitric oxide synthase). Eight chalcones gave mean IC₅₀ values less than or equal to those obtained for 1400W, which suggests that these molecules may act as inhibitors of inflammatory process⁴⁸.

Susanne et al.,reported a3′-coumaroyl-2′,4,4′-trihydroxy-6′-methoxychalcone(73), were structurally derived from helichrysetin. Compound 73 showed the highest cytotoxic activity against HeLa cells with an IC₅₀ value of 7.3 ± 0.4 μM. The anti-inflammatory activity of all compounds was measured in an in vitro ICAM-1 assay with human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC-1) ³⁸.

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Anti-HIV Activity: Thesynthesized chalcone from commercially available 2, 4, 6-trihydroxytoluene (74) or 2, 4, 6-trihydroxybenzaldehyde (75) in five (from 74) or six steps (from 75).Which shown a unique highly functionalized and potent anti-HIV activity reported by Goto et al ⁴⁹.

Anti-pyretic activity: A novel series of 4-[4-(6-phenyl-pyrimidin-4-yl)-phenoxymethyl]-chromen-2-ones 76–77(a–e)] were synthesized by Keri et al., and those compounds showed in-vivo anti-pyretic activity at a dose of 25 and 100 mg/kg body weight (b.wt.), respectively. Compounds 76(a) and 77(a–d) showed significant anti-pyretic activities comparable with standard drug aspirin using yeast-induced pyrexia model⁴⁷.

Vasorelaxant activity: Dong et al., studied the series of prenylated flavonoids. According to the estimated result, eleven molecules a-k were selected and synthesized. Their vasodilatory activities were determined experimentally in rat aorta rings that were pretreated with phenylephrine (PE). Structure–activity relationship (SAR) analysis revealed that flavanone derivatives showed the most potent activities, while flavone and chalcone derivatives exhibited medium activities⁵⁰.

CONCLUSION: The literature review of chalcone heterocyclic nucleus has proved that it is a versatile nucleus having various pharmacological activities of chalcone derivatives like antimalarial, anticancer, antileishmanial, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anti- fungal, antimicrobial, anticonvulsant and antioxidant activities etc. The vital information given in this article can be utilized further by researchers in the design and development of novel and potent drugs in the treatment of various diseases which are mentioned in this article.

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    How to cite this article:

    Prashar H., Chawla A., Sharma AK., and Kharb R.: Chalcone as a versatile moiety for Diverse Pharmacological Activities. Int J Pharm Sci Res, 2012; Vol. 3(7): 1913-1927

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