Synthesis and antitumor activity of benzoic nitrogen mustard derivatives

To study the effect of isoprenoid and aliphatic saturated alcohols as modificator on benzoic nitrogen mustard,the intermediate 4-[N,N-bis(2-chloroethyl)amino] benzoic acid 4 was prepared in four steps utilizing p-amino benzoic acid as the starting material.Target compounds were synthesized by the catalytic esterification of DCC/DMAP and the structures of the six new esters were characterized by elemental analysis,~1H NMR,~(13)C NMR and MS.Antitumor activities were evaluated in vitro using MTT assay.The result showed that some derivatives were more potent than the intermediate 4,and compound 5c modified with dodecanol exhibited similar activity to the commercial drug melphalan.