A series of trans-3-aryl acrylic acids 1-27 and their derivatives 28-34 were prepared and evaluated for their antiviral activity against tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) for the first time. The bioassay results showed that most of these compounds exhibited good antiviral activity against TMV, of which compounds 1, 5, 6, 20, 27 and 34 exhibited significantly higher activity against TMV than commercial Ribavirin both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, these compounds have more simple structure than commercial Ribavirin, and can be synthesized more efficiently. These new findings demonstrate that trans-3-aryl acrylic acids and their derivatives represent a new template for antiviral studies and could be considered for novel therapy against plant virus infection.
