Structural Activity Relationship and Importance of Benzothiazole Derivatives in Medicinal Chemistry: A Comprehensive Review

Benzothiazole (1, 3-benzothiazole) is one of the heterocyclic compounds, which is a weak base having varied biological activities. The unique methine center present in the thiazole ring makes benzothiazole as the most important heterocyclic compound. It is a common and integral structure of many natural and synthetic bioactive molecules. Benzothiazole derivatives show a variety of activities, with less toxic effects and their derivatives showed enhanced activities, which has proven Benzothiazole scaffold as one of the important moieties in medicinal chemistry. Benzothiazole ring containing compounds possess various pharmacological activities such as anti-viral, anti-microbial, antiallergic, anti-diabetic, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, anthelmitic and anti-cancer, which makes benzothiazole a rapidly developing and interesting compound in the medicinal chemistry. This review briefly explains the importance, common methods of synthesis of the benzothiazole scaffold and also explains the popular benzothiazole molecules which have applications in various fields of chemistry. A review has been carried out based on various pharmacological activities containing benzothiazole moieties and rationalize the activities based on the structural variations. Literature on benzothiazole derivatives reveals that substitution on the C-2 carbon atom and C-6 are the reasons for a variety of biological activities.