A simple methodology has been developed for the synthesis of diverse members of multifunctionalized 4-hydroxy-2-methyl-6-(phenyl)pyrimidine-5-carbonitrile derivatives via multicomponent reaction of aromatic aldehydes, ethyl cyanoacetate, and acetamidine hydrochloride using a quantitative amount of NaOH in dry DMF at 80°C in a single procedural step. The carbon skeleton of synthesized compounds resembles the bacimethrin, an antibiotic active against several yeast and bacteria. The anti-inflammatory activities of all the synthesized compounds were assessed on Wistar rats using diclofenac sodium as a standard reference. The compound AC1, 2, 5, 9, and AC10 showed promising anti-inflammatory activity (80-83 %) in comparison with diclofenac sodium (85 %) in the carrageenan-induced rat paw edema assay, which is the key finding of this article. Graphical Abstract The synthesized 4-hydroxy-2-methyl-6-(phenyl)pyrimidine-5-carbonitrile derivatives shown promising anti-inflammatory activity (80-83 %) in comparison with diclofenac sodium (85 %) in the carrageenan-induced rat paw edema assay.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (