BACKGROUND: Antioxidant compounds play a key role in human nutrition as well as in industry. Natural and synthetic antioxidants are widely used in cosmetic as well as nutritional preparations. The antioxidant and anticancer activities of new synthetic chromene derivatives were studied. METHODS: The DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl) and ABTS (2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) assays were used for determining antioxidant activity. Furthermore, the dose dependent anticancer effects of these compounds were studied on PC3 and HepG2 human cancer cell lines using MTT assay. RESULTS: Results showed that all compounds displayed the concentration dependent of scavenging activity against DPPH and ABTS, but four of them were potent than others with the IC50 values between 12-14 µg/ml for DPPH and 21-40 µg/ml for ABTS tests. A correlation was found between DPPH and ABTS test for antioxidant activity. The compounds did not exhibited antiproliferative effects against the cancer cells. CONCLUSION: Therefore, chromene derivatives may be considered promising for the development of new antioxidants agents.
