Novel Bis-Schiff Base Derivatives Of Isatin And Acenaphthoquinone: Synthesis, Spectral Characterization And Antibacterial Investigations

Bacterial infections, including drug-resistant strains, are a significant health threat. This study explores the antibacterial potential of acenaphthoquinone and isatin derivatives. Isatin and acenaphthoquinone were reacted with diamino alkane derivatives through a nucleophilic elimination reaction using PTSA as a catalyst in ethanol. The aim was to investigate the enhanced antibacterial activity, with the goal of developing new antibiotics to combat bacterial infections in humans. In the present study, two novel Schiff base derivatives, 5a and 5b, were synthesized and evaluated for their in-vitro antibacterial potential against Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. Compound 5b exhibited superior antibacterial activity compared to 5a, particularly against E. coli, where it showed a maximum zone of inhibition of 5.33 ± 0.58 mm at 100 µg/mL, as compared to 2.33 ± 0.58 mm for 5a. A similar trend was observed against B. subtilis, where 5a demonstrated slightly better activity at higher concentrations. The synthesized compounds were characterized using FT-IR, and NMR. Our findings suggest that these synthesized compounds have potential antibacterial activity and warrant further investigation against other bacterial strains in future studies.