Synthesis and Antifungal Activity of β-Carboline Heterocyclic Compounds

A total of 22 β-carboline derivatives were designed and synthesized using d-tryptophan as the starting material by structurally modifying the 3 and 9 positions of β-carboline. The antifungal activity of the synthesized compounds and molecular docking studies against 5 plant pathogenic fungi were tested. The results showed that compounds T1, T3, and T9 exhibited higher activity against Botrytis cinerea than the positive control Carbendazim, with EC50 values of 42.08, 29.35, and 26.21 mg/L, respectively. Compounds T1, T3, T9, and T11 demonstrated potent activity against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, with EC50 values of 44.65, 31.65, 54.42, and 24.05 mg/L, respectively. The highly active compounds T1, T3, T9, and T11 have the potential to be developed as novel pesticide antifungal agents, which can be further studied and optimized to obtain effective antifungal active compounds.