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Imidazole

  • High-purity Imidazole
  • Extensive range of Imidazole
  • Ideal for drug discovery applications and organic synthesis
  • Fast delivery and expert support
Imidazole compounds are essential building blocks in pharmaceutical research. Our carefully curated selection offers diverse structures for SAR studies and lead optimization, ensuring quality and reliability for your projects.

Understanding Imidazole in Modern Chemistry

Explore the critical role of Imidazole in pharmaceutical development, medicinal chemistry research and organic chemistry.

Precision Chemistry

Precision Chemistry

Advanced synthesis techniques for superior quality compounds

Great Molecules for Chemical Diversity

Our catalogue of building blocks contains a diverse range of highly functionalised and decorated compounds. The 20 years of experience in supplying cutting-edge building blocks have given us the expertise to bring you the most exciting chemical motifs, adding chemical diversity to your projects.

Our diverse catalogue is tailored for medicinal chemistry, small molecule drug discovery and organic synthesis. Our unique range of Imidazole adds value to any research project.

We constantly add to our catalogue; the latest additions include a range of new Imidazole. We continue to bring you the latest and most exciting chemical compounds.

Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance

Every Imidazole product in our portfolio undergoes rigorous quality control testing. Our building blocks are supplied with the highest purity standards. We provide complete analytical characterisation, including:

  • ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy for structural verification
  • HPLC chromatograms confirming purity levels
  • Certificate of Analysis available.
  • Standard purity of 95%
  • Specific purity available upon request.

Diverse Applications

Diverse Applications

From oncology to neuroscience, enabling next-generation therapeutics

Over 1800 Imidazole in our catalogue
Found in over 35 FDA-approved drugs
95% of compounds available from stock

Imidazole products in our portfolio

Imidazole is among the most widely used nitrogen heterocycles in medicinal chemistry, present in a broad range of approved therapeutics and in many biologically active natural products including histamine, histidine, and the purine bases of nucleic acids. The ring bears two nitrogen atoms with distinct electronic character: one pyridine-like nitrogen that acts as a hydrogen bond acceptor and one pyrrole-like nitrogen that acts as a hydrogen bond donor. This combination allows imidazole-containing compounds to engage in a diverse range of non-covalent interactions with biological targets, including hydrogen bonding, van der Waals contacts, and hydrophobic interactions with enzyme active sites and receptor binding pockets. The imidazole nitrogen can also coordinate directly to metal centres, which has been exploited extensively in the design of enzyme inhibitors that target haem-containing proteins.

The scaffold appears across multiple therapeutic areas including anti-infective, antifungal, antiprotozoal, anticancer, and cardiovascular programmes, reflecting both its versatility as a pharmacophore and its favourable physicochemical properties. Metronidazole (Flagyl, Pfizer) is an FDA-approved nitroimidazole antimicrobial that exploits intracellular reduction of its nitro group to generate reactive intermediates that interact with DNA, producing strand breaks and leading to cell death in anaerobic bacteria and protozoa. Ketoconazole (Nizoral, Janssen) is an FDA-approved synthetic imidazole antifungal, approved in 1981, whose mechanism relies on inhibition of cytochrome P450-dependent sterol 14-alpha-demethylase, disrupting fungal membrane integrity.   

Our range of Imidazoles features novel substitutions and the incorporation of synthetically tractable functional groups such as boronic acids and esters, amines, carboxylic acids, ketones, hydroxyls and halogens to enable expedient synthetic strategies. The full range can be found using the substructure feature of our Search tools.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about our Imidazole products.

Imidazole is a five-membered nitrogen heterocycle widely used in medicinal chemistry and present in many approved therapeutics, as well as in natural products such as histamine, histidine, and the purine bases of nucleic acids. The ring contains two nitrogen atoms with different electronic characters, allowing it to act as both a hydrogen bond donor and acceptor. This dual functionality enables imidazole-containing compounds to engage productively with a broad range of enzyme active sites and receptor binding pockets.

The two nitrogen atoms in imidazole have distinct electronic characters. One is pyridine-like and acts as a hydrogen bond acceptor, while the other is pyrrole-like and acts as a hydrogen bond donor. This combination allows imidazole to participate in diverse non-covalent interactions including hydrogen bonding, van der Waals contacts, and hydrophobic interactions, giving it broad utility across many target classes.
The nitrogen atoms of imidazole can coordinate directly to metal centres, a property exploited extensively in the design of inhibitors targeting haem-containing proteins. Ketoconazole, for example, uses its imidazole nitrogen to coordinate with the iron of cytochrome P450-dependent sterol 14-alpha-demethylase in fungi, blocking a key step in fungal membrane synthesis and disrupting membrane integrity.
Imidazole-containing drugs span multiple therapeutic areas including anti-infective, antifungal, antiprotozoal, anticancer, and cardiovascular programmes. This breadth reflects both the scaffold's pharmacological versatility and its generally favourable physicochemical properties. The ability to engage diverse target classes through varied non-covalent interactions underlies its appearance across so many disease areas.
Metronidazole (Flagyl) is a nitroimidazole antimicrobial in which the nitro group attached to the imidazole ring is reduced intracellularly in anaerobic organisms. This reduction generates reactive intermediates that interact with DNA, causing strand breaks and leading to cell death. The selectivity for anaerobic bacteria and protozoa arises because these organisms possess the low-redox-potential electron transport proteins required for nitro group reduction.
Ketoconazole (Nizoral) is a synthetic imidazole antifungal first approved in 1981 that works by inhibiting cytochrome P450-dependent sterol 14-alpha-demethylase in fungi. Blocking this enzyme disrupts the biosynthesis of ergosterol, a key component of fungal cell membranes, compromising membrane integrity. The imidazole ring coordinates to the haem iron of the enzyme, providing the basis for its selective inhibitory activity.
Imidazole building blocks are available with a range of functional groups including boronic acids and esters, amines, carboxylic acids, ketones, hydroxyls, and halogens. These substituents provide diverse handles for cross-coupling reactions, nucleophilic substitutions, and other synthetic transformations, supporting efficient structure-activity relationship exploration across a variety of lead optimisation programmes.

Still have questions?

Our technical support team is here to help with any inquiries about our Imidazole products.