Rakesh Kumar, Kailashpati Tripathi, Parshant Kaushik, Vijay Kumar, Rajni Godara, Partha Chandra Mondal, Sameer Ranjan Misra, Pankaj, Virendra Singh Rana, V Shanmugam, Dilip Khatri, Najam Akhtar Shakil
A series of 25 pyrazole derivatives was synthesized via ultrasonication-assisted cyclization of chalcones with phenylhydrazine and characterized using 1H NMR, 1 3C NMR, and LC-HRMS. Biological evaluation revealed that P-25 [5-(4-fluorophenyl)-1,3-diphenyl-1H-pyrazole] exhibited the highest antifungal activity against Rhizoctonia solani (ED50 = 5.56 µg mL- 1), approaching the efficacy of positive control hexaconazole 5% SC (ED50 = 3.67 µg mL- 1). While P-6 [5-(3-nitrophenyl)-1,3-diphenyl-1H-pyrazole] was most effective against Fusarium oxysporum (ED50 = 301.5 µg mL- 1). In nematicidal assays, P-21 [3-(4-ethoxyphenyl)-5-(4-nitrophenyl)-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazole] showed the greatest activity against Meloidogyne incognita (LC50 = 31.25 µg mL- 1, 24 h) although less potent than fluopyram 34.48% SC (Velum Prime) (LC50 = 3.46 µg mL- 1). Molecular docking studies targeting succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) supported the experimental results, with P-6, P-25, and P-21 exhibiting the strongest binding affinities against SDH of F. oxysporum (-8.3 kcal mol- 1), R. solani (-8.3 kcal mol- 1), and M. incognita (-7.7 kcal mol- 1), respectively.