Abstract The reported toxicities of antitrypanosomal drugs and the emergence of drug resistant trypanosomes underscore the need for the development of new antitrypanosomal agents. We report herein the synthesis of phenolic acid derivatives (vanillic acid and para-hydroxybenzoic acid) and their antitrypanosomal potential against Trypanosoma congolense. The compounds were synthesized by oxidizing the aldehyde functional groups (-CHO) in the starting materials to the corresponding carboxylic acids (-CO2H) using Jones reagent and were then characterized by FTIR. In vitro testing of these compounds in five different concentrations of 50µg/ml, 100µg/ml, 200µg/ml, 400µg/ml and 800µg/ml in 10% DMSO was carried out in triplicates in 96 well micro titer plates on the blood infected with Trypanosoma congolense. Vanillic acid was found to be most effective showing a remarkable decrease in the number of parasite with an IC50 of 768 µg/ml.
Keywords Vanillic Acid, Para-hydroxybenzoic acid, Trypanosoma congolense, DMSO, Jones reagent.