Synthesis and Fungicide Activity on Asperisporium caricae of Glycerol Derivatives Bearing 1,2,3-Triazole Fragments

In agriculture, the control of fungal infections is essential to improve crop quality and productivity. This study describes the preparation and fungicidal activity evaluation of 12 glycerol derivatives bearing 1,2,3-triazole fragments. The derivatives were prepared from glycerol in four steps. The key step corresponded to the Cu(I)-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition (CuAAC) click reaction between the azide 4-(azidomethyl)-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolane (3) and different terminal alkynes (57-91% yield). The compounds were characterized by infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H and ¹³C), and high-resolution mass spectrometry. The in vitro assessment of the compounds on Asperisporium caricae, that is, the etiological agent of papaya black spot, at 750 mg L^-1 showed that the glycerol derivatives significantly inhibited conidial germination with different degrees of efficacy. The most active compound 4-(3-chlorophenyl)-1-((2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolan-4-yl) methyl)-1H-1,2,3-triazole (4c) presented a 91.92% inhibition. In vivo assays revealed that 4c reduced the final severity (70.7%) and area under the disease severity progress curve of black spots on papaya fruits 10 days after inoculation. The glycerol-bearing 1,2,3-triazole derivatives also present agrochemical-likeness properties. Our in silico study using molecular docking calculations show that all triazole derivatives bind favorably to the sterol 14α-demethylase (CYP51) active site at the same region of the substrate lanosterol (LAN) and fungicide propiconazole (PRO). Thus, the mechanism of action of the compounds 4a-4l may be the same as the fungicide PRO, blocking the entrance/approximation of the LAN into the CYP51 active site by steric effects. The reported results point to the fact that the glycerol derivatives may represent a scaffold to be explored for the development of new chemical agents to control papaya black spot.