Abstract A series of new building blocks consisting of 1 H-pyrrolo [3, 4-b] quinolin-3 (2 H)- one with potential as selective antitumor agents is described. Compounds were synthesized by using Heck reaction of N-allyl-1 H-pyrrolo [3, 4-b] quinolin-3 (2 H)-one with p- bromophenyl acetic acid followed by formation of amide (1a–h, 2a–d) by reaction with several secondary amines in good yields. The cytotoxicity of these compounds was ...
