THREE NEW COMPOUNDS ISOLATED FROM Bauhinia variegata PLANT Bushra, 1 Hamid Ullah, 2 Dilfaraz Khan, 1 Fazal Ur Rehman, 3 Nisar Ahmad, 4 and Shafiullah Khan 1,* Original article submitted April 11, 2019. A medicinally important plant Bauhinia variegata found in tropical region is a beautiful flowering plant which is used as food additive among its various other uses. Viewing its importance, we worked to explore its hidden phytochemicals through isolation and characterization. Therefore, in this work, ethyl acetate fraction of B. variegata furnished three new compounds. Initially the compounds were isolated and purified through column chromatography using different solvent systems in order of increasing polarity and then the obtained com- pounds were analyzed by mass spectrometry, IR spectrophotometry, and NMR spectroscopy techniques. Ac- cording to HREI-MS data, Variegat C was assigned the molecular formula of C 22 H 26 O 4 (m/z = 354.1831), Variegat D as C 31 H 36 O 6 (m/z = 504.2512), and Variegat E as C 25 H 26 O 7 (m/z = 438.1679). Based on the results of spectral analysis and structure elucidation, the three compounds were identified as (1) 3-acetyl-7-ethoxy- 4-methyl-5-(2-methyl-propenyl)-naphthalene-2-carboxylic acid ethyl ester, (2) 10-hydroxy-2-(2-oxo-pro- pyl)-7-propyl-anthracene-1,6-dicarboxylic acid 1-methyl ester 6-(2,2,4-trimethyl-pent-3-enyl) ester, and (3) 3-ethoxy-1,8-dihydroxy-4-(2-methylpropenyl)-9,10-dioxo-9,10-dihydro-anthracene-2-carboxylic acid sec- butyl ester for compounds Variegat C, D and E, respectively. Keywords: Bauhinia variegata; isolation; characterization; Variegat C; Variegat D; Variegat E. 1. INTRODUCTION Natural substances obtained from plants are valuable products used, in particular, as phytomedicines, fragrances, agrochemicals, and food additives [1]. Bauhinia Variegata plant commonly called Kachnar in India, is a beautiful flow- ering plant belongs to the family Fabaceae and is found worldwide [2, 3]. It represents a medium-sized deciduous tree [4 – 7] with height varying in between 6 to 12 m. Litera- ture reveals that all parts have been used since antique times against various diseases. B. variegata is used as anti-inflam- matory [8], antibacterial, and anti-oxidant agent. Additional therapeutic properties of B. variegata include diarrhea con- trol, laxative, anti-helminthic, anti-leprotic, wound healing, antitumor, and antidote against snake poisoning [3, 9 – 12]. Its therapeutic nature is mainly associated with presence of numerous phytochemicals such as flavonoids, terpenoids, cardiac glycosides, saponins, reducing sugars, steroids, etc. [8, 13]. The range of diverse and valuable biological poten- tial shown by B. variegata and numerous phytochemical studies on the plant draws attention to further explore its po- tential phytochemical constituents. Therefore, in the present work we describe isolation and characterization of three new compounds from B. variegata. 2. EXPERIMENTAL 2.1. Plant material The whole material of B. variegata plant was collected at Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan and the plant was identified at Faculty of Agriculture, Gomal University by Professor Dr. Jamil Khan. 2.2. Extraction, Fractionation and Isolation of Compounds About 3.5 kg of powdered shade dried plant material was treated with ethanol (3´) for one week. Then the combined ethanolic extract was subjected to evaporation through rotary evaporator that furnished 95 g of gummy crude. This crude Pharmaceutical Chemistry Journal, Vol. 55, No. 1, April, 2021 (Russian Original Vol. 55, No. 1, January, 2021) 76 0091-150X/21/5501-0076 © 2021 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 1 Institute of Chemical Sciences, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, KPK, Pakistan. 2 Department of Chemistry, Balochistan University of Information Technol- ogy, Engineering and Management Sciences, Quetta 87300, Pakistan. 3 Faculty of Pharmacy, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, KPK, Paki- stan. 4 Department of Physics, Balochistan University of Information Technol- ogy, Engineering and Management Sciences, Quetta, Pakistan. * e-mail: shafi.ics.gu@gmail.com; s.khan@gu.edu.pk DOI 10.1007/s11094-021-02375-3