New mono
acid esters have been synthesized from the reaction of
benzoic acid and mono-
hydroxybenzoic acids with
2-phenoxyethanol separated from Urtica pilulifera, characterized, and screened for possible
antioxidant, antifungal, antimicrobial and anticancer activities. These
phenolic acid esters gave various degrees of
free radical scavenging, but the values were lower than that of α-
tocopherol. The concentrations of the tested compounds needed to reduce DPPH absorption by 50% at 517 nm were nearly in the range
of 900-1100 µg/mL. While for α-
tocopherol was 40 µg /mL. The compounds were tested in-vitro against six bacterial species which are known to cause dermic and mucosal
infections in human. 2-phenoxyethyl
benzoate showed significant activity in the range of 30% against P. aeruginosa to 70% against E. coli compared with the activity of
Streptomycin. On the other hand 2-phenoxyethyl 2-hydroxybenzoate reveals 70% of
gentamicin against K. pneumoniae. The tested compounds also showed complete inhibition at a concentration less than 37.5 µg/mL against M. canis and less than 50 µg/mL against T. rubrum. 2-phenoxyethyl
4-hydroxybenzoate showed considerable activity against MCF-7 with IC50 is less than 62.5 µg/mL.