Synthesis and antioxidant and antitumor activity of novel pyridine, chromene, thiophene and thiazole derivatives.

2-Tosylacetonitrile (1) when reacted with α,β-unsaturated nitriles 2a-c or a mixture of formaldehyde and 3-amino-2-substituted-pent-2-endinitriles 6a,b yielded pyridine derivatives 3a-c and 9a,b, respectively, while when subjected to react with salicylaldehyde yielded chromene derivatives 4 and 5, subsequently. The behavior of thiocarbamoyl derivative 10 derived from 1 towards some α-halogenated compounds have been investigated as well as its behavior towards elemental sulfur and phenyl isothiocyanate. Newly synthesized compounds were screened for their antioxidant activity, erythrocytes haemolysis and bleomycin-independent DNA damage. Some of the tested compounds exhibited promising activities.