In an effort to develop new antimicrobial agents, a series of chalconederivatives, 3-60, were prepared by Claisen-Schmidt condensation of appropriate acetophenones and 2-furyl methyl ketones with appropriate aromatic aldehydes, furfural, and thiophene-2-carbaldehyde in an aqueous solution of NaOH and EtOH at room temperature. The synthesized compounds were characterized by means of their IR- and NMR-spectral
2-Substituted-4-quinolones 2 and the corresponding 2,3-dihydro-2-substituted-4-quinolones 3 have been obtained by reduction with CO at 170 °C and 30 atm of 2-nitrochalcones 1, catalysed by Ru3(CO)12 with DIAN-Me as co-catalyst in ethanol–water.