Microwave-assisted synthesis and antioxidant activity of a hydrazone, (E)-1-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-2- phenylhydrazine

Hydrazones have been reported for the various interesting biological activities, such as antioxidant, antitumor, and anticancer activities. In this work, a methoxy substituted hydrazone, (E)-1-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-2-phenylhydrazine (compound 3) has been synthesized under microwave irradiation and its antioxidant activity evaluated using DPPH method. Structure of the synthesized compound was confirmed based on the spectroscopic data included UV, FT-IR, MS, 1D and 2D NMR. Based on DPPH assay, the synthesized compound exhibited very strong antioxidant activity with IC50 value of 9.5 ± 1.1 µg/ml, it is close with IC50 value of ascorbic acid which is used as antioxidant standard.