Seven novel helicid derivatives have been designed and synthesized by the Mannich reaction of helicid with substituted aniline and aliphatic ketone. The structures of all these new compounds were characterized by ¹H NMR, IR, MS and HRMS spectra. The preliminary bioassay test suggested that some of such compounds should show good calm activity. For example, compounds 2a (200 mg/kg), 2b (200 or 100 mg/kg) and 2e (200 mg/kg) are more effective than the parent helicid.

Key words: Mannich base, synthesis, calm activity, helicide