Expeditious synthesis and preliminary antimicrobial activity of deflazacort and its precursors

The synthesis of deflazacort (DFZ) and a preliminary evaluation of its microbial activity against the human pathogens Acinetobacter baumannii and Staphylococcus aureus is herein reported. While DFZ is inactive, one of its synthetic precursors showed a strong antibacterial activity against both Gram-negative and -positive bacteria.