Scientists have been increasingly interested in recent years in finding new anti-inflammatory
drugs. Chalcone term is given to the flavonoid compounds bearing the 1,3-diphenyl-2-propen1-one framework. Generally, chalcones are precursors of flavonoids with two aromatic rings
joined together through three carbons, α, β-unsaturated carbonyl system. In plants, chalcones
are converted to the respective (2S)-flavanones by enzymatic reaction of chalcone isomerase.
Based on the close chemical and biogenetic relationship between flavanones and chalcones,
they are considered as natural products. For anti-inflammatory activity of chalcones, activated
macrophages play an important role and compounds with that inhibit nitro oxide production
by macrophages have been found potential for the prevention and treatment of inflammatory
disorders. Some functional groups such as dimethylamine, methoxy and butoxy groups
increase the electron density of the B-ring resulting in significant loss of anti-inflammatory
activity. Therefore, in this project we synthesised five compounds for chalcones containing
halogens (-Cl, -F) at meta-positions on aromatic rings in chalcones and tested for their antiinflammatory activity. The synthesized compounds were purified by column chromatography
and characterised by 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, FTIR, Mass and UV spectra. Further evaluation
of their in vitro anti-inflammatory activity were carried out using RAW 264.7 mouse
macrophages. The test dose of chalcones were determined was cytotoxicity (MTT) assay on
RAW264.7 mouse macrophages. The results showed that the halogen substitution at metapositions on aromatic rings improved the anti-inflammatory activity for the compound (E)-
1,3-bis(3-chlorophenyl) prop-2-en-1-one (III) shows the best activity. The table below
showed the compounds activity with IC50 values.