Synthesis and biological activity of ferrocenyl furoyl derivatives

Due to the fact that ferrocene and furan derivatives have long been known to be one of the most biologically active compounds, preparation of their new derivatives might serve a very important purpose. Herein, five furoyl ferrocenes were synthesized via EAS reaction utilizing AlCl3-EtAlCl2 Lewis acids. The compounds 1–5 were obtained in moderate yields and characterized by IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, and mass spectrometry. Although toxicity increases with concentration, at 100 µg/mL concentration, the protection of cell viability was observed to be 70% level. At 50 µg/mL concentration, apoptosis in cancer cells observed was 63 ± 4% leading to high apoptosis ratio for the compound 3. For the compounds (1–5), the necrotic effects were found to be between 21% and 39% at 50 µg/mL concentration.