Synthesis, Molecular Docking and Biological Evaluation of 2-Aryloxy-N-Phenylacetamide and N'-(2-Aryloxyoxyacetyl) Benzohydrazide Derivatives as Potential Antibacterial Agents.

A new class of 2-aryloxy-N-phenylacetamide and N'-(2-aryloxyoxyacetyl) benzohydrazide derivatives with different active moieties were synthesized and screened for their antibacterial activity. Structural characterization of synthesized compounds was performed using HR-MS, 1 H-NMR, and 13 C-NMR spectral data. Amongst the synthesized compounds, 4-{2-[2-(2-chloroacetamido)phenoxy]acetamido}-3-nitrobenzoic acid (3h) and 2-chloro-N-(2-{2-[2-(2-chlorobenzoyl)hydrazinyl]-2-oxoethoxy}phenyl)acetamide (3o) have shown good antibacterial activity against a selected panel of bacteria. Besides, compounds also exhibited bactericidal activity against P. aeruginosa (3h, 0.69 µg/mL) and S. aureus (3o, 0.62 µg/mL) as evident by MBC and time-kill kinetics studies. In silico molecular docking and ADMET properties of newly synthesized compounds revealed that compounds could be considered as promising antibacterial agents.