Design, synthesis, and antifungal activities of chalcone derivatives containing piperidine and sulfonamide moiety

A series of chalcone derivatives containing piperidine sulfonamide were designed and synthesized from natural chalones, and their structures were characterized on NMR and HRMS. In vitro antifungal activity test results showed that most of the target compounds exhibited good antifungal activities against a variety of fungi in vitro. X17 showed an excellent antifungal activity against S. sclerotiorum, Phomopsis sp, P. capsica with EC50 values of 10.43, 10.78, 12.02 µg/mL, respectively. It was better than those of azoxystrobin (19.34, 18.21, 63.44 µg/mL). In vivo antifungal activity test showed that X17 at the concentration of 200 µg/mL had better curative activities on rape leaves (90.8%) than that of azoxystrobin (86.6%). The protective activities on kiwifruits (88.3%) were better than that of azoxystrobin (86.1%). Mechanical studies showed that X17 inhibited the normal hypha growth by disrupting the cell membrane of S. sclerotiorum.