Exploring the Potential of N-Benzylidenebenzohydrazide Derivatives as Antidiabetic and Antioxidant Agents: Design, Synthesis, Spectroscopic, Crystal Structure, DFT and Molecular Docking Study

Hydrazone-type Schiff bases have been widely explored owing to their therapeutic properties. These compounds are known to have antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, and antioxidant properties, among others. In the present study, six hydrazone-based Schiff bases (BB1–BB6) were synthesized by the reaction between derivatives of benzaldehyde and benzo hydrazide in methanolic medium in the presence of catalytic amount of formic acid. The synthesized compounds were characterized using various spectroscopic techniques such as NMR (¹H, ¹³C, COSY, DEPT, HSQC, HMBC, and NOESY), FTIR, UV-Vis, elemental (CHN) analysis, and high-resolution mass spectroscopy. In addition, single crystal structures of BB2, BB4, and BB6 were obtained. In vitro antidiabetic and antioxidant potential of the compounds was evaluated on glucosidase, amylase, NO, FRAP, and DPPH assays, respectively. In all the assays, compounds BB6, BB4, and BB2 showed higher activity than the others. To further explore the chemical reactivity properties and their mechanism of action against the tested assays, DFT and molecular docking study were performed, and the results obtained reinforce the experimental study data.