Design, synthesis, characterization and <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i> anti-inflammatory evaluation of novel pyrazole-based chalcones

<div><p></p><p>A series of novel pyrazole-based chalcones have been designed, synthesized from 1-methyl-5-(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)-1<i>H</i>-pyrazole (<b>6</b>). The structures of regioisomers <b>6</b> and <b>7</b> were determined by 2D ¹H–¹H COSY, ¹H–¹³C HSQC and ¹H–¹³C HMBC experiments. The newly synthesized compounds were tested for their inhibitory activity against COX-1 and COX-2 using an <i>in vitro</i> cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibition assay. Moreover, they were investigated <i>in vivo</i> for their anti-inflammatory activities using carrageenan-induced rat paw edema model for acute inflammation and cotton pellet-induced granuloma model for chronic inflammation. All the synthesized compounds showed potential to demonstrate anti-inflammatory activities, of particular interest compounds <b>10i, 10e</b>, <b>10f</b>, and <b>10h</b> were found to be potent anti-inflammatory agents.</p>