Design, synthesis, molecular docking, and ADME prediction evaluation of phenyloxazole derivatives as α-glucosidase inhibitors

•A series of phenyloxazole derivatives was synthesized as α-glucosidase inhibitors.•All of the compounds showed good inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase.•Compound 6n demonstrated the best inhibitory activity.•Fluorescence quenching and circular dichroism were used to see the change of the secondary structure of α-glucosidase.•Compounds 6n displayed low toxicity on human normal cell lines.