Multicomponent Synthesis of Biologically Relevant S-Diarylmethane Dithiocarbamates Using p-Quinone Methides

A metal and base-free, operationally simple, and scalable multicomponent approach towards the synthesis of S-diarylmethane dithiocarbamates is reported. A range of structurally and electronically diverse p-quinone methides are shown to react with a variety of amines, and carbon disulfide to furnish corresponding dithiocarbamates in good to excellent yields under mild conditions. Furthermore, p-QMs embedded with aliphatic substituents are well accommodated. Importantly, these readily accessible compounds demonstrated promising anti-proliferative activity in the low micromolar ranges in lung adenocarcinoma cells, reiterating the importance of the developed methodology. (Figure presented.).