l-Proline mediated synthesis of quinoxalines; evaluation of cytotoxic and antimicrobial activity

Abstract

A simple, greener and highly efficient method for the synthesis of functionalized quinoxalines has been developed employing L-proline as a catalyst in water. To the best of our knowledge this transformation is achieved for the first time using an organic catalyst. A small library of quinoxaline–sulphonamide conjugates have been synthesized using this protocol. The newly synthesized conjugates have been tested for their cytotoxicity and antimicrobial activity against several bacterial strains including one fungal strain. The majority of the compounds have exhibited significant cytotoxicity as well as antimicrobial activity. Compounds 5a, 5b and 5d were found to be promising with respect to both cytotoxicity and antimicrobial activity.