In an endeavor to find a novel series of antihyperglycemic agents, new benzimidazole and pyrimidine derivatives were successfully synthesized efficiently in high yield with high purity, starting from amino acids in the presence of phosphorus oxychloride (POCl3). The synthesized compounds were identified by 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, FT-IR spectroscopic techniques and elemental analysis. All products were assayed for their inhibitory effects on yeast and rat intestinal α-glucosidases. The results revealed that compounds with aromatic amino acids moiety showed significant inhibition activity on the tested enzymes. Among the benzimidazole derivatives 4c and 4d exhibited the best activity against both of the tested enzymes. Also, among the pyrimidine derivatives 5c and 5d possessed significant inhibition action on the enzymes. The IC50 values for the most potent benzimidazole yeast and intestinal α-glucosidases inhibitor (4d) were found to be 9.1 and 36.7 µM, respectively. The IC50 values for the inhibition of yeast and intestinal α-glucosidases by the most active pyrimidine compound (5d) were calculated to be 8.3 and 21.8 µM, respectively. Overall, this study proved that benzimidazole and pyrimidine derivatives with aromatic amino acids moieties can represent novel promising α-glucosidase inhibitors.
