Thiosemicarbazones of p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) were synthesized and tested for their antimicrobial and anticancer activity. Hydroxamate derivatives 4a-4l were found to have better antimicrobial and anticancer activity than their acid counterpart. Compound 4d was found to have good antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Vibrio cholerae, and Bacillus subtilis with IC(50) value of about 1 µM. Compound 4f showed potent antifungal activity against Candida albicans (IC(50)  = 1.29 µM) and compound 4h showed potent anticancer activity (IC(50)  = 0.07 µM).

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Curcumin, a natural diaryl heptanoid continues to be used as an alternative medicinal agent in many parts of South East Asia for treatment of many ailments. It can be usually obtained from substituted aryl aldehydes and acetylacetone and this route enables synthesis of a diverse set of curcumin analogues. Numerous analogues have been synthesized and tested by several researchers to investigate their activity against known biological targets and to improve upon the pharmacological and ADME profile by modifying substitutions on aromatic rings, β-diketone moiety and two flanking double bonds conjugated to the β-diketone moiety. Successful synthesis of such derivatives with modifications has resulted in the development of potential anticancer candidates that target various stages in cancer cell growth and development. Based on the evidences in modifications of these three functional elements, we have attempted to summarize the structure activity relationship of molecules which can be further utilized by researchers in medicinal chemistry in exploring the structure of curcumin.

The modern therapeutic approaches of antiepileptic agents against epileptic patients are showing many side effects, dose related effects and chronic toxicity. The aim of our present work is to evaluate anticonvulsant activity of isatin derivatives (Ia-Ij) to reduce the side-effects and increase the percentage protection from various stages of convulsions. No animals showed toxic effects even up to 2000mg/kg. It is evident that Ib, Ie, Ih, Ii and Ij showed anticonvulsant effect at the dose levels of 10 and 100mg/kg in MES test and except Ij all other derivatives exhibited antiepileptic effect at 10 and 100mg/kg in PTZ induced convulsions test. The isatin derivatives (Ib, Ie, Ih and Ii) which proved antiepileptic effect in both MES and PTZ induced convulsion models are selected and GABA levels in brain were estimated. They showed significant increase of GABA levels in brain.