Report: Synthesis and screening of some new N-alkyl/aralkyl-N-(3,4- ethylenedioxybenzyl)-4-substituted benzenesulfonamides as potential antibacterial agents.

The various p-substituted benzenesulfonyl chlorides (2a-e) were treated with (3,4-methylenedioxy) benzylamine (1) in the presence of aqueous Na ₂ CO ₃ solution to synthesize N-(3,4-methylenedioxybenzyl)-4-substitutedbenzenesulfonamides (3a-e). The synthesized molecules were further converted into corresponding N-ethyl/benzyl/4-flourobenzyl-N-(3,4-methylenedioxybenzyl)-4-substitutedbenzenesulfonamides (7a-e, 8a-e, 9a-e) on reaction with ethyl iodide (4), benzyl chloride (5) and 4-flourobenzyl chloride (6) in the presence of sodium hydride using N,N-dimethylformamide as solvent. The structure elucidation was processed through different spectral techniques including IR, ¹ H-NMR and EIMS. The screening of the synthesized molecules against Gram-bacterial strains, to evaluate antibacterial activity, showed them moderately good inhibitors as shown by their low MIC values.