Selective exploitation of acetoacetate carbonyl groups using imidazolium based ionic liquids: synthesis of 3-oxo-amides and substituted benzimidazoles

Recent achievements in the synthesis of benzimidazole derivatives

Benzimidazoles are a class of heterocyclic compounds in which a benzene ring is fused to the 4 and 5 positions of an imidazole ring. Benzimidazole refers to the parent compound, while benzimidazoles are a class of heterocyclic compounds having similar ring structures, but different substituents. Benzimidazole derivatives possess a wide range of bioactivities including antimicrobial, anthelmintic, antiviral, anticancer, and antihypertensive activities. Many compounds possessing a benzimidazole skeleton have been employed as drugs in the market. The application of benzimidazoles in other fields has also been documented. The synthesis of benzimidazole derivatives has attracted much attention from chemists and numerous articles on the synthesis of this class of heterocyclic compound have been reported over the years. The condensation between 1,2-benzenediamine and aldehydes has received intensive interest, while many novel methods have been developed. In this article, we will give a comprehensive review of studies on the synthesis of benzimidazole, which date back to 2013. We have also tried to describe reaction mechanisms as much as we can. The work might be useful for chemists who work in the synthesis of heterocycles or drug chemistry.

1,4,2-Dioxazol-5-ones as Isocyanate Equivalents: An Efficient Synthesis of 2-Quinolinones via β-Keto Amides

Under thermal conditions, 1,4,2-dioxazol-5-ones are known to undergo decarboxylation followed by Lossen’s rearrangement to yield isocyanates. Described herein is the in situ trapping of the resulting isocyanates with carbon nucleophiles to synthesize β-keto amides. Furthermore, a general and mild method for the conversion of the resulting β-keto amides into quinolin-2-ones is reported.

A novel synthesis of 2-arylbenzimidazoles in molecular sieves-MeOH system and their antitubercular activity

Arylbenzimidazoles have been synthesized as antimycobacterial agents. An efficient synthesis has been developed for 2-arylbenzimidazoles from o-phenylenediamines and aromatic aldehydes in molecular sieves-methanol system. The methodology is straightforward to get 2-arylbenzimidazoles (3a-3z) in excellent yields with high chemoselectivity over 2-aryl-1-benzylbenzimidazoles (4a-4z). All these benzimidazole analogues were evaluated against M. tuberculosis in BACTEC radiometric assay. The compounds 4y and 4z exhibited potential antitubercular activity against M. tuberculosis H₃₇R_V, MIC at 16 µM and 24 µM respectively. The best compound of the series i.e. compound 4y was well tolerated by Swiss-albino mice in acute oral toxicity. Compound 4y possessing a diarylbenzimidazole core, can further be optimized for better activity.