Synthesis and biological evaluation of resveratrol analogues as anti-bacterial agents

Resveratrol (3,5,4'-trihydroxy-trans-stilbene) is a stilbenoid, a type of natural phenol, and a phytoalexin produced naturally by several kinds of plants when under attack by pathogens such as bacteria or fungi which exerts a variety of biological activities. In this work, several resveratrol derivatives were designed and synthesized through a four-step convenient synthetic procedure. Six newly synthesized compounds were characterized on the basis of ¹H NMR and mass spectra. Also, these compounds were tested for their biological activities against Gram⁺ and Gram^- bacteria. Through the analysis on the results of the anti-bacterial activity test, a preliminary structure-activity relationship was obtained which indicated that the trans-stilbene structure and the phenolic hydroxyl group (also the acetoxyl group), especially the para-phenolic hydroxyl group are the two key structures for their anti-bacterial activities in this type of molecules.