Exploration of in vitro time point quantitative evaluation of newly synthesized benzimidazole and benzothiazole derivatives as potential antibacterial agents.

Present communication deals with the in vitro time point quantitative antibacterial evaluation of newly synthesized 1,2-disubstituted benzimidazoles (3a-p) and 2-substituted benzothiazoles (5a-h) against Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, and Gram-negative bacteria Vibrio cholerae, Shigella dysenteriae and Escherichia coli. These compounds were synthesized under mild reaction conditions using Al(2)O(3)-Fe(2)O(3) nanocrystals as heterogeneous catalyst. Bio-evaluation studies revealed that, compounds 3a, 5a and 5d exhibited moderate to good antibacterial activity against all the tested bacterial stains. The compounds 3a, 3f and 5a have shown enhanced inhibitory activity compared with standard antibacterial drug ciprofloxacin against V. cholerae, B. cereus, and S. dysenteriae, respectively. Additionally, the compounds 3a, 3e, 3f, 3h and 5b displayed complete bactericidal activity within 24 h, whereas ciprofloxacin took 48 h to kill those bacteria completely.