Synthesis and antimicrobial activity of knipholone analogs.

In the present study, we use knipholone as a prototype molecule to identify new anti-infective agents. Since knipholone is insoluble in water, which would have a detrimental effect on its bioavailability and efficacy, we synthesized knipholone Mannich base derivatives (-) that have better predicted solubility and investigated their antimicrobial activity against eight pathogenic bacterial and fungal strains. The chemical structures of compounds - were elucidated from their H and C NMR data, and their antimicrobial activity evaluation was carried out by a broth microdilution MTT assay.