Synthesis and molecular docking studies of xanthone attached amino acids as potential antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory agents

A series of novel xanthone conjugated amino acids were synthesised and characterised by analytical and spectroscopic methods. All the synthesized analogues (2-23) were screened for their in vitro antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities. Compounds 7, 8, 9, 12, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 23 showed excellent antimicrobial activities compared to antibacterial and antifungal reference drugs gentamicin and bavistin, respectively. Compounds 7-12 and 18-23 showed good anti-inflammatory activity compared to a standard drug, indomethacin. The preliminary structure-activity relationship revealed that tryptophan, tyrosine, phenylalanine, proline and cysteine conjugated compounds showed excellent antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities. This may be explained by the contribution of aromaticity and hydrophobicity of amino acids. Molecular docking studies were performed for all the synthesised compounds, among which compounds 20, 21 and 23 showed the highest docking scores for antimicrobial activity while compounds 9, 20 and 22 showed the highest docking scores for anti-inflammatory activity. Different amino acids conjugated xanthone derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro biological activities. The conjugation was found to play a major role in improving the biological activities of those compounds.