Synthesis of 1,2,3-triazole-substituted coumarins and also 1,2,3-triazolyl or 1,2,3-triazolylalk-1-inyl-linked coumarin-2,3-furocoumarin hybrids was performed by employing the cross-coupling and copper catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction approaches. The synthesized compounds were evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillius subtilis, Actinomyces viscosus and Escherichia coli bacterial strains. Coumarin-benzoic acid hybrids 4с, 42с and 3-((4-acetylamino-3-(methoxycarbonyl)phenyl)ethynyl)coumarin (29) showed promising activity against S. aureus strains, and the 1,2,3-triazolyloct-1-inyl linked coumarin-2,3-furocoumarin hybrid 37c was endowed with high selectivity against B. subtilis and E. coli species. The in vitro antibacterial activity of 4с, 29, 37c and 42с can potentially be compared with that of a number of modern antibiotic drugs used in the clinic, suggesting promising prospects for further research. A detailed study of the molecular interactions with the targeted protein MurB was performed using docking simulations and the obtained results are quite promising.

Twenty-one phenolic compounds (1–21) including dihydrocinnamic acid, isoflavonoids, flavonoids, coumestans, pterocarpans, chalcones, isoflavan and isoflaven, were isolated from the roots of Glycyrrhiza pallidiflora Maxim. Phloretinic acid (1), chrysin (6), 9-methoxycoumestan (8), isoglycyrol (9), 6″-O-acetylanonin (19) and 6″-O-acetylwistin (21) were isolated from G. pallidiflora for the first time. Isoflavonoid acetylglycosides 19, 21 might be artefacts that could be produced during the EtOAc fractionation process of whole extract. Compounds 2–4, 10, 11, 19 and 21 were evaluated for their cytotoxic activity with respect to model cancer cell lines (CEM-13, MT-4, U-937) using the conventional MTT assays. Isoflavonoid calycosin (4) showed the best potency against human T-cell leukaemia cells MT-4 (CTD₅₀, 2.9 μM). Pterocarpans medicarpin (10) and homopterocarpin (11) exhibit anticancer activity in micromolar range with selectivity on the human monocyte cells U-937. The isoflavan (3R)-vestitol (16) was highly selective on the lymphoblastoid leukaemia cells CEM-13 and was more active than the drug doxorubicin