Synthesis and cytotoxic activity of geranylmethoxyhydroquinone derivatives

The new synthetic geranyl-2,4-methoxyhydroquinone 1 and the known geranyl-4,5-methoxyhydroquinone 2 were prepared by Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution (EAS) reactions between geraniol and 1,3,5-trimethoxyphenol using BF3·Et2O as a catalyst. Furthermore, the new geranylmethoxyhydroquinones derivatives (3-6) were obtained by chemical transformations of 1 and 2. The compounds have been evaluated for their cytotoxic activities against PC-3 human prostate cancer cell line, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells lines and dermal human fibroblasts DHF. IC50 values for compounds 1 and 5 ranged in the 80 µM level.