An efficient synthesis of O- and N- alkyl derivatives of 4-aminobenzoic acid and evaluation of their anticancer properties.

A series of twenty alkyl derivatives (2–21) of 4-amino benzoic acid (1, PABA) have been prepared using potassium carbonate and opportune alkylating agents under simple and mild reaction conditions. Compounds (16–21) are reported for the first time. Electron impact mass spectrometry (EIMS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H-NMR) spectroscopic techniques were adopted for the characterization of these analogues. In the present study, the cytotoxic screening of sixteen compounds (3, 5–11, 13 and 15–21) was also achieved against lung (NCI-H460) and oral squamous carcinoma (CAL-27) cell lines. Compound 20 has shown magnificent inhibitory properties against NCI-H460 cell line (IC₅₀ 15.59 and 20.04 µM, respectively) at a lower dose than that of the control (cisplatin; IC₅₀ 21.00 µM). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) have been performed to determine the reliability of current data through statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]