Design and Evaluation of Semicarbazones and Thiosemicarbazones as Novel Anticonvulsants

A series of semicarbazones and thiosemicarbazones were designed and synthesized to meet the structural requirements essential for anticonvulsant activity. All the compounds were evaluated for anticonvulsant activity after intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration to mice by maximal electroshock (MES) and subcutaneous metrazol (ScMet) induced seizure methods and minimal motor impairment was determined by rotorod test. Semicarbazones and thiosemicarbazones of lipophillic carbonyl groups (citral and carvone) showed excellent activity while semicarbazone and thiosemicarbazone of levulinic acid were found to be inactive. Results of the present study show that lipophilic aryl ring could be replaced with non-cyclic lipophillic groups but could not be replaced with hydrophilic substituents.