Microwave-promoted facile access to 4-aminoquinoline-phthalimides: Synthesis and anti-plasmodial evaluation

Microwave promoted high yielding synthesis of 4-aminoquinoline-phthalimides was developed with an aim to evaluate their anti-plasmodial potential. The scaffolds with longer spacer length (n = 6, 8) between two pharmacophores and a halogen substituent on the phthalimide ring displayed good antiplasmodial activity. Compound 5w, with an optimum combination of hexyl chain as spacer along with a tetra-bromophthalimide ring proved to be most potent and non-cytotoxic among the series exhibiting an IC₅₀ value of 0.10 μM.