Aqueous Extract of Musa Acuminata: An Ecofriendly Catalyst for Knoevenagel Condensation

A novel green approach is followed for Knoevenagel condensation. The waste banana peels were used to derive BPE. This BPE was also compared with various bases earlier reported. But all these bases and operating conditions have some limitations which our developed biocatalyst somehow overcomes. In vitro antioxidant potential of synthesized compounds was investigated which revealed their significance in the chemical, medical and pharmaceutical field. Thus, this green and sustainable approach followed the waste to wealth concept by utilizing natural biowaste derived BPE as catalyst for the synthesis of various useful and desirable arylidene malononitrile compounds.

Abstract

An efficient and greener approach for Knoevenagel condensation between substituted aldehydes and ketones with active methylene compound as starting substrate has been achieved using aqueous extract of Muca Acuminata as a neutral heterogeneous biocatalyst (Characterized by XRD, TEM, EDS, and ICP-MS) at room temperature is reported. We found that this method is advantageous over the traditional methods that include refluxing, heating, use of toxic and highly expensive catalyst or solvents and also reduced the reaction time. It is ascertained that the reactions via this protocol are very clean and the isolated crude solid product is more than 95 % pure. The synthesized arylidene compounds exhibited great antioxidant potential and also acts as specific protein-tyrosine kinase inhibitors and thus serves as an anticancer agent. The final product is separated by simple filtration and is characterized by various spectroscopic techniques like FT-IR, ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, ¹⁹F-NMR and MS. The cheaper, simple and green approach suggests the possible use of this protocol for large scale preparations.

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