A practical and green approach towards synthesis of multisubstituted imidazoles using boric acid as efficient catalyst

An efficient one-pot, cyclocondensation of ammonium acetate, 1,2-diphenyl ethanedione, aromatic aldehyde or arylamine, and catalyzed by boric acid is achieved to form multisubstituted imidazole derivatives. Boric acid as green property is harmless to the environment and has improved the yield of multisubstituted imidazole derivatives. Moreover, we have tested the biological activities of imidazole derivatives by the four fungi. And the investigations showed most of imidazole derivatives have antifungal action on four fungus.