Design and synthesis of positional isomers of 5 and 6-bromo-1-[(phenyl)sulfonyl]-2-[(4-nitrophenoxy)methyl]-1H-benzimidazoles as possible antimicrobial and antitubercular agents.

In this Letter, we report the structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies on series of positional isomers of 5(6)-bromo-1-[(phenyl)sulfonyl]-2-[(4-nitrophenoxy)methyl]-1H-benzimidazoles derivatives 7(a-j) and 8(a-j) synthesized in good yields and characterized by (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR and mass spectral analyses. The crystal structure of 7a was evidenced by X-ray diffraction study. The newly synthesized compounds were evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, (Gram-positive), Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae (Gram-negative), antifungal activity against Candida albicans, Aspergillus flavus and Rhizopus sp. and antitubercular activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Mycobacterium fortuitum and MDR-TB strains. The synthesized compounds displayed interesting antimicrobial activity. The compounds 7b, 7e and 7h displayed significant activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv strain.