~ 16 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2017; 6(1): 16-22 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2017; 6(1): 16-22 Received: 04-11-2016 Accepted: 05-12-2016 Mohammad Shahabuddin Department of Chemistry, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh Md. Sharif Hossain Department of Chemistry, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh Md. Mizanur Rahman Department of Chemistry, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh Tanvir Muslim Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka, Dhaka- 1000, Bangladesh Shameem Ara Begum Department of Chemistry, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh Correspondence Shameem Ara Begum Department of Chemistry, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh Phytochemical constituents from the leaves of Malva verticillata L. Mohammad Shahabuddin, Md. Sharif Hossain, Md. Mizanur Rahman, Tanvir Muslim and Shameem Ara Begum Abstract In the present study, a phytochemical investigation has been carried out for isolation and characterization of chemical constituents from the leaves of Malva verticillata L. The powder of dried leaves of Malva verticillata L. was extracted with petroleum ether and ethyl acetate. Attempt has been taken for isolation of compounds from petroleum ether and ethyl acetate extract of the leaves by chromatographic technique. Tetracontanyl palmitate has been isolated from petroleum ether extract and a ketone has been isolated from ethyl acetate extract. The structures of the compounds have been established by different spectroscopic techniques. Studies of antimicrobial activity of the isolated compounds were also done. Keywords: Malva verticillata L., leaves, solvent extract, phytochemical, chromatography, spectroscopy 1. Introduction World plant biodiversity is the biggest resource of herbal medicine and still now a major percentage around 60-80% of world population depend on plant-based medicines. Since ancient times, humans have used natural products, such as plants, marine organisms, in medicines to mitigate and treat all sort of physical illness. According to fossil records, the human use of plants as medicines may be traced back at least 60,000 years [1] . It is now clear that, the medicinal value of these plants lies in the bioactive phytochemical constituents that produce definite physiological effects on human body. These natural compounds formed the base of modern drugs as we use today. Natural products and related drugs are used to treat 87% of all categorized human diseases including bacterial infection, cancer and immunological disorders [2] . About 25% of prescribed drugs in the world originate from plants [3] and over 3000 species of plants have been reported to have anticancer properties [4] . About 80% of the population in developing countries relies on traditional plant based medicines for their primary health care needs [5] . Bangladesh has a rich and prestigious heritage of herbal medicines among the South Asian countries. More than 500 species of medicinal plants are estimated as growing in Bangladesh and about 250 species of them are used for the preparation of traditional medicines. However, the majority of these plants have not yet undergone chemical, pharmacological and toxicological studies to investigate their bioactive compound (s) [6] . Malva verticillata L. is one of the species of Malvaceae family. The leaves of Malva verticillata L. are commonly consumed as vegetables in the northern part of Bangladesh, locally known as Laffa or Napa Shak. Considering the importance of Malva verticillata L. much work has been done on its seed and different polysaccharides have been isolated previously such as MVS-IIA and MVS-IIG [7] as a neutral polysaccharides, MVS-V [8] as the major pectic peptidoglycan, MVS-I [9] also as a neutral polysaccharides, MVS-VI [10] as a novel acidic polysaccharides. On the other hand, in case of leaves antimicrobial activity and phytochemical analysis have been carried out for different solvent extracts [11] . However, according to literature survey, no report on phytochemical constituents of Malva verticillata L. leaves has been reported. Therefore, the present paper deals with petroleum ether and ethyl acetate extract of Malva verticillata L. leaves and the isolation and characterization of the biologically important chemical constituents from different extracts initially. 2. Experimental 2.1 Materials and Methods All solvents and reagents used in this experiments were either of analytical or laboratory grade, purchased from Merck (Germany) and BDH (England) except petroleum ether which was commercial grade. Petroleum ether (PE) was obtained from commercial petrol after distilling in a glass distillation apparatus and collected the desire fraction.