Aromatic hydroxyl group plays a critical role in antibacterial activity of the curcumin analogues.

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the aromatic substituents of the curcumin scaffold on the antibacterial activity of the resulting curcumin analogues. Six curcumin analogues with different aromatic substituents were prepared and their antibacterial activities were evaluated against two Gram-positive and four Gram-negative bacteria. The structure-activity relationship study demonstrated that antibacterial activity of the curcumin analogues was critically dependent upon the aromatic hydroxyl group. Thus, hydroxycurcumin with an additional aromatic hydroxyl group on the curcumin scaffold showed antibacterial activity against all six pathogens tested and it remained effective even against ampicillin-resistant Enterobacter cloacae. Along with the previously reported antioxidative effect, the broad-spectrum antibacterial activity of the hydroxycurcumin warrants further investigation of its biological activity as well as extensive structure-activity relationship study of the curcumin analogues with various aromatic substituents.