Design, Synthesis of Novel Thiourea and Pyrimidine Derivatives as Potential Antitumor Agents

1,3‐Bis‐(arylidene)thiourea derivatives ( 11a‐c ) were prepared by reacting thiourea ( 9 ) with bezaldehyde, p‐chlorobenzaldehyde or p‐anisaldehyde ( 10a‐c ) respectively. Further reaction of ( 11b ) with acetyl acetone, ethyl acetoacetate, malononitrile and acetic anhydride gave tetrahydropyrimidine‐2‐thiones ( 12‐14 ) and 1,3‐diacetyl thiourea ( 15 ). Compound ( 11b ) reacted with chloroacetyl chloride to give the corresponding pyrimidin‐4‐one derivative ( 16 ). Reaction of ( 12‐14 ) with acetic acid in aqueous sodium nitrite yielded the corresponding oxime derivatives ( 17‐19 ). The triazole ( 20 ) was achieved via refluxing of ( 19 ) in dimethylformamide. Reaction of ( 16 ) with mercaptoacetyl chloride gave the sulfanyl‐acetic acid ( 21 ) which afforded the dihydrazinyl ( 22 ) up on treatment with hydrazine hydrate. Newly synthesized compounds ware characterized by elemental analyses and spectral data (IR, 1 H‐NMR, 13 C‐NMR and mass spectra). The investigated compounds were screened for their cytotoxicity, i.e. compounds 19 , 20 and 22 exhibited highly potential antitumor activity.