Synthesis and Evaluation of Novel Fluorobenzimidazole Derivatives as Antibacterial and Antifungal Agents

A new class of fluorobenzimidazole derivatives (IIIa-j)was synthesized to investigate their antimicrobial potential. All the compounds were prepared by multiple step synthesis, initiating from the synthesis of 5-(difluoromethoxy)-1H-benzimidazole-2-thiol (I). The compound I was further reacted with different derivatives of 2-chloro-N-phenylacetamide (IIa-j) prepared by reacting differently substituted anilines with chloroacetylchloride and triethylamine in DMF (solvent); resulting in formation of fluorobenzimidazoles IIIa-j. The compounds IIIa-j were characterized by spectral analysis viz. 1H NMR, 13C NMR, mass spectra, elemental analysis and IR. All these compounds were screened in vitro for their antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive (S. aureus and E. faecalis) and Gram-negative bacterial (E. coli and P.aeruginosa) strains as well as fungi (A. niger and C. albicans). Some of the compounds exhibited promising results (in MIC) against Gram-negative bacterial strains.