Synthesis, characterization, anticancer, antibacterial and antioxidant activities of novel thymol ester compound

• A novel thymol ester (E2) was synthesized by condensing thymol with indole-3-carboxylic acid in DCM at room temperature. • E2 exhibited enhanced antibacterial activity against S. aureus and S. epidermidis and varying effectiveness against cancer cells. • E2 demonstrated stronger antioxidant scavenging capacity than thymol, especially at lower concentrations. • E2 better preserved normal muscle cells compared to thymol, suggesting safer therapeutic potential. Thymol and its derivatives have been proven in earlier studies to exhibit a broad range of biological activities, particularly given that many of them have therapeutic uses. This study focused on preparing a new ester of thymol, and the new compound was studied as antibacterial, anticancer and as antioxidant agent. Thymol was condensed with indole-3-carboxylic acid in DCM solvent at room temperature (25 °C) without catalyst to form the new thymol ester compound E2 (Fig. 1), and then the new compound was identified through FT-IR and NMR analysis, and the biological properties were tested and studied. The results showed that the novel E2 ester molecule was variably effective against all tested cancer and bacterial cells in different amounts. According to this study, thymol ester E2 preserved normal muscle cells more effectively than thymol. In contrast to thymol, the E2 derivative had superior efficacy against the Gram-positive bacteria under investigation ( S. aureus and S. epidermis ) in the antibacterial trial. Additionally, its inhibition zone was larger than Gentamicin against S. epidermis . Additionally, the E2 ester molecule exceeded thymol in an antioxidant assay for scavenging capacity at low concentrations.