Five fluorine-containing curcumin analogues were synthesized by the aldol condensation of fluorine-containing benzaldehyde with ketones. Their structures were characterized by ¹H NMR, IR and ESI-MS techniques. The anti-tumor activities of the mono-carbonyl analogues were evaluated against seven different tumor cell lines by an MTT assay. The results suggest that the fluorine-containing compounds exhibit anti-proliferative activities against selected tumor cells. Among the presented compounds, the cyclohexanone-containing analogues exhibited better anti-tumor properties in wider spectrum than acetone and cyclopentanone-containing analogues did. Therefore, one of cyclo-hexanone-containing compounds 3b was further determined and analyzed using X-ray single-crystal diffraction. The crystal of compound 3b belongs to triclinic, space group P-1, with unit cell dimensions a＝0.9222(2) nm, b＝0.9732(2) nm, c＝1.0127(2) nm, α＝88.920(4)°, β＝75.672(3)°, γ＝62.404(3)°, V＝0.7755(3) nm³, Z＝2. D_c＝1.329 Mg•m^－3, μ＝0.097 mm^－1, F(000)＝324. The final R＝0.0590, wR＝0.1841 .

Key words: curcumin analogue, synthesis, crystal structure, anti-tumor property