Design, synthesis and cytotoxic activities of novel β-amino alcohol derivatives.

Three series of novel β-amino alcohols possessing an N-anthranyl group have been obtained using tryptophan as the major starting material. These compounds were screened for cytotoxic activity against five human cancer cell lines in vitro by MTT assay, and some of them exhibited potential ability to be anticancer agents. Structure-activity relationship was carefully investigated. Only the compounds possessing small substituents (H or CH(3)) at C-6 position showed the same activity as cisplatin (DDP) did.