indicates such reaction has noticeable advantages, thus, it may be a favourable factor during its possible industrial application. Under
conditions of excess formaldehyde and 2:1 molar ratio of Schiff base 5 and anhydrous piperazine, novel furan-containing bis(1,2,4-
triazole Mannich base) 7a-7c were prepared conveniently in 92%-97% yield using the same procedure. From these reaction results it
can be confirmed that the thione-form of the Schiff base 5 took part in the Mannich reaction with its α–NH of thiocarbonyl group
(C=S), though it can exist in thiol-form as shown in Scheme 1.
1
Compounds 6 and 7 were identified by melting point, IR, H NMR and 13C NMR spectra (Supporting information). The measured
1
elemental analyses data were also consistent with the corresponding calculated values (Supporting information). In H NMR, the –
N=CH– proton showed up at δ 10.17–10.52. The piperazine ring proton signals of compounds 6a-6r were observed at two positions,
however, due to the symmetrical structure of compounds 7a-7c, they were observed as a singlet at δ ~ 2.94. In 13C NMR, the typical
carbon signal at δ ~ 163.3 was derived from the resonance of thiocarbonyl group (C=S). The piperazine carbons of compounds 7a-7c
also appeared as one signal at δ ~ 50.5 as opposed to two signals in compounds 6a-6r. In addition, due to the “F” splitting, the signals
of CF3 carbon and carbons adjacent to CF3 or F group were split into quartet or multiplet, or doublet. In IR spectra of these compounds,
the stretching vibration absorption bands of C=S and C=N appeared at 1161-1175 cm-1 and 1599-1621 cm-1, respectively.
The structure of compound 6i was further confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis (Fig. 3). From the molecular
structure it can be seen that both groups (triazole-CH2 and phenyl) on the N atoms of piperazine ring are in the e-bond positions of
chair conformation in the six-membered ring. The dihedral angle between furan ring and triazole ring is 3.945°, which means the two
rings are almost coplanar. While the dihedral angle between 4-fluorobenzene ring and the triazole ring is 35.021°, which indicates the
two rings are not coplanar in the molecular structure. The X-ray analysis also reveals that, in this typical structure (6i), the substituted
benzene ring and the triazole ring are on the opposite sides of the C=N double bond. The torsion angle of C(2)-C(1)-N(1)-N(2) is -
178.572°, which indicates that the C=N double bond is in the (E)-configuration.
The in vitro antifungal results of the Mannich bases 6a-6r and bis-Mannich bases 7a-7c in inhibiting the mycelial growth of six test
fungi are shown in Table 1. As indicated in Table 1, most of the compounds exhibited significant in vitro antifungal activities against
Fusarium oxysporum, Cercospora arachidicola, Physalospora piricola and Rhizoctonia cerealis at 50 mg/L concentration. For
Fusarium oxysporum, compounds 6a, 6b and 6e whose inhibition activities were 90.0%, 57.5% and 60.0% respectively, were more
effective than Tridimefon (50.0%). Especially, 6a held 1.8-fold and 1.2-fold inhibitory rates of commercial controls Tridimefon and
Chlorothalonil (75.0%), respectively. It was found that most of compounds containing a 4-chlorophenyl group (R1 = Cl) in the Schiff
base moiety of such structures showed more favourable antifungal activities against Fusarium oxysporum than the others. Compounds
6a, 6b, 6f, 6g, 6i, 6k, 6m, 6n, 6p, 6q and 6r possessed 31.0% ~ 41.4% inhibitory rates against Cercospora arachidicola, which are
similar with that of Tridimefon (34.5%). For this fungus, when R1 = F, R2 = phenyl and dimethylpyrimidyl (6i and 6k), the
corresponding compounds were found to have higher activities than the others. Noticeably, all of the title compounds exhibited
excellent antifungal activities against Physalospora piricola, and most of them were more effective than the control Tridimefon. In
particular, compounds 6b, 6e, 6i, 6j, 6l, 6m, 6o, 6p and 6q showed inhibitory rates of 75.0% ~ 95.3% (Tridimefon: 53.1%), which
definitely offered us important clue to make further structural optimization for the discovery of novel fungicides against Physalospora
piricola in the future. Interestingly, the SAR showed that trifluoromethyl-containing compounds (R1 = CF3) have obvious advantage
over others. For Rhizoctonia cerealis, most of the compounds held excellent inhibitory rates (80.2% ~ 97.5%). Especially, compounds
6b, 6i, 6m, 6p, 6q and 6r with inhibitory rates of 95.1%, 96.3%, 95.1%, 95.1%, 95.1% and 97.5%, respectively, were more effective
than Tridimefon (93.8%). It was also found that trifluoromethyl-containing compounds (R1 = CF3) showed superiority to the others.
For Alternaria solani Sorauer and Gibberella sanbinetti, all of the compounds exhibited fair antifungal activities.
By analyzing the SAR based on these antifungal activity data (Table 1) of the title compounds, we can make the conclusions as
follows: The Mannich base compounds 6 held better antifungal activities than those of the bis-Mannich base compounds 7; Those
compounds containing CF3 or Cl group (in the Schiff base motif) were more effective than those of F-containing compounds in most of
cases; Compounds 6a, 6b, 6e, 6i, 6k, 6m, 6p, 6q and 6r possessed not only excellent antifungal activities, but also comparatively
broader spectrum (at least effective for three kinds of fungi) and were comparable with the commercial fungicide Triadimefon.
Therefore, further structural optimizations could be made for the discovery and development of novel fungicides in the future
according to these results.
Some compounds with high antifungal potency were further investigated at different concentrations against Fusarium oxysporum
and Physalospora piricola for EC50 values. These EC50 test results are shown in Table 2 and Table 3. We can see that compounds 6a,
6b and 6e against Fusarium oxysporum possessed higher EC50 values than those of the controls Chlorothalonil and Carbendazim, but
lower EC50 values than that of the control Triadimefon (Table 2), which indicates the consistency with the results in Table 1. In
particular, 6a held excellent antifungal activity against Fusarium oxysporum with EC50 value of 9.49 mg/L (much lower than EC50
47.90 mg/L of Triadimefon). Against Physalospora piricola, all the tested compounds in Table 3 possessed EC50 values of 9.14 mg/L ~
20.2 mg/L, much lower than that of Triadimefon (36.5 mg/L). Especially, 6m (10.9 mg/L), 6q (10.4 mg/L) and 6r (9.14 mg/L) were
almost at the same antifungal level of Chlorothalonil (7.33 mg/L).
The herbicidal activity data of the title compounds are listed in Table 1, commercial herbicide Chlorsulfuron was used as control. It
was observed from Table 1 that most of the compounds showed apparent herbicidal activities at 100 μg/mL concentration according to