Synthesis of Coumarin linked Naphthalimide Conjugates as Potential Anticancer and Antimicrobial Agents

A series of new coumarin linked naphthalimides (16a-g; 18a-g) was synthesised and evaluated for their in vitro anticancer activity against six cancer cell lines. Most of the compounds investigated have shown good to moderate anticancer activity against colon, breast and lung cancer cell lines. Thermal denaturation studies indicated that some compounds exhibited DNA binding ability. They were also found to be active against gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strains as well as a few fungal strains.