SYNTHESIS AND CYTOTOXIC ACTIVITY OF GERANYLMETHOXYHYDROQUINONE DERIVATIVES

the new synthetic geranyl-2,4-methoxyhydroquinone 1 and the known geranyl-4,5-methoxyhydroquinone 2 were prepared by electrophilic aromatic substitution (eas) reactions between geraniol and 1,3,5-trimethoxyphenol using bf3·et2o as a catalyst. furthermore, the new geranylmethoxyhydroquinones derivatives (3-6) were obtained by chemical transformations of 1 and 2. the compounds have been evaluated for their cytotoxic activities against pc-3 human prostate cancer cell line, mcf-7 and mda-mb-231 human breast cancer cells lines and dermal human fibroblasts dhf. ic50 values for compounds 1 and 5 ranged in the 80 μm level.