Investigating the Antimicrobial, Antidiabetes, and Antioxidant Potential of Hydroxyl-Containing Schiff Bases, In Vitro, and Computational Studies

Four azomethine compounds (L₁–L₄) derived from the reaction of p-hydroxybenzaldehyde and various primary amines are reported herein. Various analytical and spectroscopic techniques were employed to characterize the synthesized compounds. The antidiabetic properties of L₁–L₄ were evaluated by exploring α-amylase and α-glucosidase assays, where L₂ and L₃ displayed good antidiabetic properties with an IC₅₀ values of 0.06 and 0.03 mg/ml for the α-amylase assay, respectively, better than the acarbose (standard drug) with IC₅₀ value of 0.08 mg/ml. With the exception of L4, the antioxidant activity of L₁–L₄ showed good nitric oxide radical scavenging capacity and their significant DPPH free radical scavenging ability. The antibacterial activities of the compounds are dose-dependent, and compounds L₁ and L₂ showed notable activities. Computational studies of L₁–L₄ using density functional theory and the molecular docking methods indicated that L₂ had an energy gap of 7.10 eV, making it the least reactive, while L₃ had an energy gap of 6.52 eV, making it the most chemically reactive.