Design and synthesis of coumarin–imidazole hybrid and phenyl-imidazoloacrylates as potent antimicrobial and antiinflammatory agents

An improved one pot, multi-component synthesis of tri- and tetrasubstituted coumarin–imidazole hybrid has been synthesized at C4 position in good to excellent yield. The reaction was performed under various catalysts and optimization condition results obtained are satisfactory. Wherein, trisubstituted coumarin–imidazole hybrid compounds were converted into phenyl-imidazole acrylates. Further, all the newly synthesized compounds were screened for their antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive Bacillus flexus and Gram-negative Pseudomonas spp. bacterial strains and two strains of fungi studies having Scopulariopsis spp. and Aspergillus terreus organisms. Similarly, antiinflammatory activity of all the compounds was screened against MMP-2 and MMP-9. Both antimicrobial and antiinflammatory results are excellent, among all compounds, sodium acrylate compounds are quite promising against microbial strains and matrix metalloproteins (MMPs). All the isolated compounds were characterized by IR, NMR, and mass spectral analysis. Graphical abstract