ANTITRICHOMONAL ACTIVITY OF 1,3-DIARYL-2-PROPEN-1-ONES

Abstract

1,3-diaryl-2-propen-1-ones were synthesized by the Claisen - Schmidt condensation method. T. gallinae parasites isolated from domestic pigeon were cultured in vitro. The in vitro susceptibility of T. gallinae was evaluated in multi-well plates at 37oC. Four of the synthetic compounds produced significant antitrichomonal activity against T. gallinae. The minimal lethal concentrations (MLCs) (produced by) 2’-hydroxy-4-methoxychalcone, 2’-hydroxy-2,4’-dimethoxychalcone, 2’-hydroxy-4-chlorochalcone, 3,4,4’-Trimethoxychalcone and 4-hydroxcychalcone were 100.0, 0.78, 50.0, 50.0 and 3.13 µg/ml respectively. The results indicate that 2’-hydroxy-2,4’-dimethoxychalcone and 3 other synthetic 1,3-diaryl-2-propen-1-ones possess potent antitrichomonal activity against T. gallinae. However, the studies on cytotoxicity effect showed that all the active chalcones demonstrated a very low haemagglutination titre values ranging between 0.57 –4.06 suggesting their low toxicity profile.