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 T 1, T 3, and T 9 exhibited higher activity against Botrytis cinerea than the positive control Carbendazim, with EC 50 values of 42.08, 29.35, and 26.21 mg/L, respectively. Compounds T 1, T 3, T 9, and T 11 demonstrated potent activity against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, with EC 50 values of 44.65, 31.65, 54.42, and 24.05 mg/L, respectively. The highly active compounds T 1, T 3, T 9, and T 11 have the potential to be developed as novel pesticide antifungal agents, which can be further studied and optimized to obtain effective antifungal active compounds.