Design, synthesis, crystal structure and fungicidal activity of (E)-5-(methoxyimino)-3,5-dihydrobenzo[e][1,2]oxazepin-4(1H)-one analogues.

A practical method of four-step synthesis towards novel (E)-5-(methoxyimino)-3,5-dihydrobenzo[e][1,2]oxazepin-4(1H)-one antifungals is presented, where a commercially available pesticide and pharmacology intermediate, (E)-methyl 2-(2-(bromomethyl)phenyl)-2-(methoxyimino)acetate (1), was used as starting material. These compounds were confirmed by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, high-resolution mass spectroscopy and X-ray crystal structure. Via in vitro fungicidal evaluation, the moderate to high activities of several compounds against eight phytopathogenic fungi were demonstrated. Especially, the fungicidal activities of compounds 5-03 and 5-09 were comparable to those of the controls azoxystrobin and trifloxystrobin in precise virulence measurements for four fungi. These results suggested that dihydrobenzo[e][1,2]oxazepin-4(1H)-one analogues could be considered as potential fungicidal candidates for crop protection.