A series of novel
N
-alkyl-1-deoxynojirimycin derivatives
25 ∼ 44
were synthesised and evaluated for their in vitro α-glucosidase inhibitory activity to develop α-glucosidase inhibitors with high activity. All twenty compounds exhibited α-glucosidase inhibitory activity with IC
50
values ranging from 30.0 ± 0.6 µM to 2000 µM as compared to standard acarbose (IC
50
= 822.0 ± 1.5 µM). The most active compound
43
was ∼27-fold more active than acarbose. Kinetic study revealed that compounds
43
,
40
, and
34
were all competitive inhibitors on α-glucosidase with
K
i
of 10 µM, 52 µM, and 150 µM, respectively. Molecular docking demonstrated that the high active inhibitors interacted with α-glucosidase by four types of interactions, including hydrogen bonds, π–π stacking interactions, hydrophobic interactions, and electrostatic interaction. Among all the interactions, the π–π stacking interaction and hydrogen bond played a significant role in a various range of activities of the compounds.