A series of 19 title compounds prepared from 4-benzamidopiperidine [33953-37-6] by alkylation, acylation, Mannich or Michael-type reactions, or ring closure reactions were evaluated for hypotensive activity in anesthetized normotensive rats and antihypertensive activity in conscious renal hypertensive rats.The most active hypotensive compounds were I, R = 2-hydroxy-2-pyrrol-2-ylethyl [36793-50-7] and I, R = 2-(2-quinolyl)ethyl [36793-54-1].The most active antihypertensive compounds were I, R = 2-(4-pyridyl)ethyl [36793-45-0], I, R = 2-(2-pyridyl)ethyl [36806-71-0], I, R = 2-(3-benzo[b]thienyl)ethyl [36793-52-9], and I, R = 2-(3-benz[g]indolyl)ethyl [36806-70-9].None of the compounds were as potent as indoramin [26844-12-2] in either test.I, R = 2-phenothiazin-10-ylethyl [52818-64-1] caused noncompetitive antagonism of histamine in an isolated guinea-pig ileum preparationStructure-activity relations were discussed.