Synthesis and evaluation of antioxidant activity of novel 3,5-disubstituted-2-pyrazolines

Driven by the increased demand of pyrazolines exhibiting biological activities like antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, antimicrobial, antitumor, and antitubercular drug activity as a stable fragment in biological moieties, lead us to synthesize 2-pyrazolines by the condensation of various substituted chalcones and hydrazine hydrate in the presence of ethanol. The structure of the synthesized molecules was confirmed on the basis of physical data and extensive spectral studies. All the 13 compounds have been screened for antioxidant activity using DPPH radical scavenging method, NO scavenging assay, superoxide radical scavenging assay and hydrogen peroxide radical scavenging assay. All the compounds showed good free radical scavenging activity which is comparable to that of the standard ascorbic acid, out of which ATP-1, ATP-2 and ATP-3 come out to be the best molecules with an IC50 less than 40 mcg/ml. The results indicated that 2-pyrazolines could be the potential candidates eliciting antioxidant activity, and further studies can be conducted using molecular modeling tools for designing 2-pyrazolines having better activity.