Since 2019, the infection of SARS‐CoV‐2 has been spreading worldwide and caused potentially lethal health problems. In view of this, the present study explores the most commodious and environmentally benign synthetic protocol for the synthesis of tetrahydrobenzo[ b ]pyran and pyrano[2,3‐ d ]pyrimidinones as SARS‐CoV‐2 inhibitors via three‐component cycloaddition of aromatic aldehyde, malononitrile, and dimedone/barbituric acid in water. Lemon peel from juice factory waste, namely, lemon ( Citrus limon ), sweet lemon ( C. limetta ), and Kaffir lime or Citron ( C. hystrix ), effectually utilized to obtain WELPSA, WESLPSA, and WEKLPSA, respectively, for the synthesis of title compounds. The catalyst was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy‐dispersive x‐ray spectroscopy (EDX). The concentration of sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium in the catalyst (WELPSA) was determined using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). The current approach manifests numerous notable advantages that include ease of preparation, handling and benignity of the catalyst, low cost, green reaction conditions, facile workup, excellent yields (93%–97%) with extreme purity, and recyclability of the catalyst. Compounds were docked on the crystal structure of SARS‐CoV‐2 (PDB: 6M3M). The consensus score obtained in the range 2.47–4.63 suggests that docking study was optimistic indicating the summary of all forces of interaction between ligands and the protein.

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This study is composed of X-ray diffraction and Density Functional Theory (DFT) based molecular structural analyses of 2-phenyl-4-(prop-2-yn-1-yl)-2,4-dihydro-3H-1,2,4-triazol-3-one (2PPT). Crystal data for C11H9N3O: Monoclinic, space group P21/c (no. 14), a = 7.8975(2) Å, b = 11.6546(4) Å, c = 11.0648(3) Å, β = 105.212(2)°, V = 982.74(5) Å3, Z = 4, T = 296.15 K, μ(MoKα) = 0.091 mm-1, Dcalc = 1.346 g/cm3, 13460 reflections measured (5.174° ≤ 2Θ ≤ 64.72°), 3477 unique (Rint = 0.0314, Rsigma = 0.0298) which were used in all calculations. The final R1 was 0.0470 (I > 2σ(I)) and wR2 was 0.1368 (all data). The experimentally determined data was supported by theoretically optimized calculations processed with the help of Hartree-Fock (HF) technique and Density Functional Theory with the 6-311G(d,p) basis set in the ground state. Geometrical parameters (Bond lengths and angles) as well as spectroscopic (FT-IR, 1H NMR, and 13C NMR) properties of 2PPT molecule has been optimized theoretically and compared with the experimentally obtained results. Hirshfeld surface analysis with 2D fingerprinting plots was used to figure out the possible and most significant intermolecular interactions. The electronic characterizations such as molecular electrostatic potential map (MEP) and Frontier molecular orbital (FMO) energies have been studied by DFT/B3LYP approach. The MEP imparted the detailed information regarding electronegative and electropositive regions across the molecule. The HOMO-LUMO energy gap as high as 5.3601 eV was found to be responsible for the high kinetic stability of the 2PPT.