Intermolecular interaction energies and molecular conformations in N -substituted 4-aryl-2-methylimidazoles with promising in vitro antifungal activity

ELEJALDE, NERITH-ROCIO; MACÍAS, MARIO A.; ZACCHINO, SUSANA; BUTASSI, ESTEFANÍA; PORTILLA, JAIME

Acta Crystallographica Section B Structural Science, Crystal Engineering and Materials

ISSN National Centre for Denmark

Año: 2019 vol. 75 p. 1197 - 1207

A convenient one-pot synthesis of 4-aryl-2-methyl-N-phenacylimidazoles (4)through a microwave-assisted pseudo-tricomponent reaction of -romoacetophenones(1) with acetamidine hydrochloride (2) is reported. Ketones (4) were successfully used as substrates for the preparation of the respective N-(2-hydroxyethyl)imidazoles (5) with yields up to 87%. The synthesized compounds were characterized by NMR and high-resolution mass spectrometry analyses,and several structures were confirmed and studied by single-crystal X-raydiffraction. The analysis of the whole-of-molecule interactions shows that,despite the difference in the atom?atom contacts forming the crystals, dispersion energies make the largest contribution to the formation of the solids, giving an isotropic tendency in the topology of the energy framework diagrams for pairs of molecules. In addition, the in vitro antifungal activity of both families of compounds [ketones (4) and alcohols (5)] against Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans was evaluated, where the 2,4-dichlorophenylsubstituted alcohol (5f), an isomer of the drug miconazole, showed the highest activity (IC50 = 7.8 mg ml1 against C. neoformans).