Study of the variation of intra/intermolecular interactions and configuration of a group of Enone anticancer drugs as a result of solvation

Abstract During the last decade, the naturally occurring yellow Enone has drawn considerable attention due to its wide applications in biological, medical and pharmaceutical phenomena. The properties of molecular surrounding media can modify its various properties. In this work, spectral properties of three Enone derivatives were studied in various solvents by spectroscopic and theoretical techniques. As expected, the results show that photo-physical behavior of the Enone solutes depends strongly on the solvent–solute interactions and the nature of the solvent, along with different attached groups on the solute structures. In order to investigate the solvent–solute interactions and media effect on spectral variations, linear solvation energy relationships suggested by Kamlet–Abboud–Taft and Catalan parameters, were used. It was observed that the excited state dipole moments of Enone drugs are higher than those in the ground state, which increase the probability of charge transfer mechanism. The experimental results were also confirmed by density functional theory and its related time-dependent calculations including NBO analysis. The achieved results would help us to better understand the photo-physical properties and reveal essential information about the interaction of structural functional groups of Enone drugs in different media.