Base Induced Condensation of Malononitrile with Erlenmeyer Azlactones: An Unexpected Synthesis of Multi-substituted Δ2-Pyrrolines and their Cytotoxicity Activity.

An efficient, metal free approach to synthesize multi-substituted Delta(2)-pyrroline derivatives by mild base catalyzed cyclocondensation of malononitrile with Erlenmeyer azlactones via 1,2 addition was developed. The modularity of this reaction was used to assemble a range of poly-substituted pyrrolines. Further, synthesized products were screened for cytotoxic properties on different cancer cell lines such as A549 (Human lung adenocarcinoma cells), HeLa (Human cervical adenocarcinoma cells), Jurkat (Human chronic myeloid leukemia cells) and K562 (Human leukemic T cell Lymphoblast cells). Among the synthesized library of compounds, 6f and 6q displayed potent cytotoxic activity.