Synthesis, biological evaluation and molecular docking analysis of vaniline–benzylidenehydrazine hybrids as potent tyrosinase inhibitors

In this work, 11 novel compounds based on vaniline and benzylidenehydrazine structure were synthesized with various substituents on phenyl aromatic ring of the molecule and evaluated as tyrosinase inhibitors. These new derivatives showed significant anti-tyrosinase activities, among which 4i demonstrated to be the most potent compound, with IC(50) values of 1.58 µM . The structure–activity relationship study of the novel constructed analogs was fully discussed. Kinetic study of compound 4i showed uncompetitive inhibition towards tyrosinase. Furthermore, the high potency of 4i was supported theoretically by molecular docking evaluations. [Image: see text]