A facile and one-pot synthesis of pyrone derivatives via ionic liquid catalysed knoevenagel reaction and their biological evaluation

A series of novel pyrone derivatives was synthesized by using a green chemistry approach i.e. by the use of an ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide. The three component one-pot synthesis of pyrone involves the Knoevenagel condensation reaction of 4-hydroxy-6-methyl-pyrone, malononitrile and substituted aromatic aldehydes. The representative compounds were characterized by spectral data such as ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and Mass analysis. All the synthesized pyrone derivatives were evaluated for their antimicrobial and anticancer potential. Among the compounds synthesized, 1d, 1f and 1l showed moderate antibacterial activity (Table 2) against E. coli strain. Against HCT-116 cells, 1a, 1c, 1d, 1e, 1k, 1l and 1n compounds and against MCF-7 cells, 1b, 1i, 1l and 1n compounds displayed anticancer activity. The common pyrone derivatives like 1d, 1f and 1l have both antimicrobial and anticancer properties.