2-Methylanthraquinone

Chemical Name: 2-Methylanthraquinone

CAS Number: 84-54-8

2-methylanthraquinone is a anthraquinone compound, yellow solid at room temperature and pressure, insoluble in water but soluble in alcohol organic solvents and ethyl acetate. ‌

2-methylanthraquinone is an important intermediate in organic synthesis, and is also the basic synthetic raw material for photosensitive dyes, light screen resins, medicines and pesticides. 2-methylanthraquinone has a large conjugated structure, exhibits good fluorescence properties, and can be used as chemical intermediates of high quality dyes. In addition, it also has certain biological activity and has been reported as a major protease inhibitor of SARSCoV-2, which can fight against COVID-19. The benzene ring unit in the chemical structure of 2-methylanthraquinone can be chlorinated or nitrated, and then a wide variety of anthraquinone dyes can be synthesized, which has great commercial value. Due to its aromatic properties and oxygen-containing structure, 2-methylanthraquinone also has a certain electrophilicity and can participate in the electrophilic substitution reactions of aromatic groups, such as alkylation and acylation. In addition, 2-methylanthraquinone also showed strong anti-mosquito activity, and had significant inactivation effect on specific mosquito species.

On October 27, 2017, the preliminary list of carcinogens published by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer was collated for reference, and 1-amino-2-methylanthraquinone was in the list of 3 types of carcinogens.