Synthesis, antitumor and DNA cleavage activities of a novel class of dehydroabietylamine derivatives

Previous studies have reported higher biological activity of dehydrorosinamine derivatives. In order to further synthesize novel compounds with higher biological activity, a series of novel compounds containing benzo-azepine structures were synthesized from dehydroabietylamine in good yields in this study. The structures of synthesized compounds were identified by infra red (IR), (1)H-NMR, (13)C-NMR, and mass spectra (MS) analysis. The antitumor activities of the target compounds against L02 and HepG2 cells were studied. Furthermore, the dehydroabietylamine derivatives were studied on plasmid DNA cleavage activities. The results showed that the synthesized target compound exhibit antitumor and DNA cleavage activities against plasmid DNA (Escherichia coli). Our results further demonstrate the relationship between the chemical structure and biological function of the synthesized compounds.