Supramolecular Gels Derived from Simple Organic Salts of Flufenamic Acid: Design, Synthesis, Structures, and Plausible Biomedical Application.

Following supramolecular synthon rationale in the context of crystal engineering, a nonsteroidal-anti-inflammatory-drug (NSAID), namely flufenamic acid () and its β-alanine monopeptide derivative (), were converted to a series of primary ammonium monocarboxylate (PAM) salts. Majority of the PAM salts (∼90%) showed gelation with various solvents including water and methyl salicylate (important solvents in topical gel formulation). Structure-property correlation studies based on single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SXRD) and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) data provided intriguing insights into the structure of the gel network. Furthermore, one of the gelator salts () displayed anticancer activity on a highly aggressive human breast cancer cell line () ,as revealed by MTT, PEG, and cell migration assays.