The natural product molecule 2,4,6-trihydroxy-3-geranyl-acetophenone (tHGA)
isolated from the medicinal plant Melicope ptelefolia was shown to exhibit potent
lipoxygenase (LOX) inhibitory activity. It is known that LOX plays an important role in
inflammatory response as it catalyzes the oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids, such as
linoleic acid to form hydroperoxides. The search for selective LOX inhibitors may provide
new therapeutic approach for inflammatory diseases. Herein, we report the synthesis of
tHGA analogs using simple Friedel-Craft acylation and alkylation reactions with the aim of
obtaining a better insight into the structure-activity relationships of the compounds. All the
synthesized analogs showed potent soybean 15-LOX inhibitory activity in a dose-dependent
manner (IC50 = 10.31–27.61 μM) where compound 3e was two-fold more active than
tHGA. Molecular docking was then applied to reveal the important binding interactions of compound 3e in soybean 15-LOX binding site. The findings suggest that the presence of
longer acyl bearing aliphatic chain (5Cs) and aromatic groups could significantly affect the
enzymatic activity.