Facile synthesis of 2-aryl 5-hydroxy benzo[d]oxazoles and their in vitro anti-proliferative effects on various cancer cell lines.

2-Aryl 5-hydroxy benzo[d]oxazoles were designed as potential anticancer agents. A one-pot synthesis of these compounds dispenses the need for ortho-disubstituted precursor, aminophenol and proceeds via CN formation as a key step followed by CO cyclization to form benzo[d]oxazoles. The single crystal X-ray diffraction study was used to confirm the molecular structure of a representative compound unambiguously. All of these compounds were evaluated for their anti-proliferative properties in vitro against five cancer cell lines as well as noncancerous cells. Most of these compounds showed selective growth inhibition of cancer cells and few of them were found to be promising with IC50 values in the range of 0.8-2.8 μM, comparable to the known anticancer drug doxorubicin.