This study concerned with phytochemical investigation and methods of extraction and separation of active constituents from Valeriana officinalis plant cultivated in Iraq. Due to the large number of active constituents in Valeriana officinalis, it was necessary to make analytical study of its constituents to determine the chemical nature of these constituents and then determine the main classes (terpenes and iridoids) using chemical reagents specific for each class. Different organic solvents like ethanol (70%) used in soxhlet apparatus and hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol were used separately to extract the main active constituents by maceration. Through comparison between these solvents using thin layer chromatography (TLC), it has been found that hexane was best suited to extract most of the active constituents from the plant by maceration method. Analytical study showed that terpens was separated and purified using preparative TLC and preparative HPLC. Identification of isolated component (valtrate) from roots of plant was obtained using HPLC and PHPLC also depending on some material-specific constants such as infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Results of analysis showed that Valeriana officinalis cultivated in Iraq is a good source of many constituents with different important pharmacological activities. The pharmacological study showed that the total organic plant extract has sleep induction effect when injected I.P. to experimental mice.

The aim of the present study was to characterize the Iraqi Tribulus terrestris for the presence of biologically active phyto-chemicals using methanolic extracts of the plant (aerial parts) by Gas Chromatography –Mass spectrometry (GC/MS), while the mass spectra of the compounds found in the extract was matched with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) library , in addition to study the antioxidant activity of plant extract , results confirmed the presence of therapeutically potent compounds in the Iraqi Tribulus terrestris extract predominantly alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins and terpenoids. Antioxidant potential of Iraqi Tribulus terrestris herbal preparations was evaluated by determination of blood glutathione, serum ascorbic acid and serum superoxide dismutase in rats. The obtained results demonstrated that T. terrestris preparations possess a significant antioxidant activity.

This study includes synthesis of some nitrogenous heterocyclic compounds linked to amino acid esters or heterocyclic amines that may have a potential activity as antimicrobial and/or cytotoxic. Quinolines are an important group of organic compounds that possess useful biological activity as antibacterial, antifungal and antitumor .8-Hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ) and numerous of its derivatives exhibit potent activities against fungi and bacteria which make them good candidates for the treatment of many parasitic and microbial infection diseases. These pharmacological properties of quinolones aroused our interest in synthesizing several new compounds featuring heterocyclic rings of the quinoline derivatives linked to amino acid ester or heterocyclic amine with the aim of obtaining a pharmacologically active compounds.O-alkylation has been done on( 8-hydroxyquinoline ) to get (O-alkylated ester) derivatives which are deesterfied to get acetic acid derivatives, then coupled with amino acid that have protected carboxyl group (amino acid esters) or heterocyclic amine by using conventional solution method for peptide synthesis as a coupling method. The proposed analogues were successfully synthesized and the processing of the reactions confirmed by TLC ,the synthesized analogues with the proposed structures as they were characterized and proved by melting point, infrared spectroscopy (IR) and elemental microanalysis. The tested analogues showed cytotoxic activity on the HEp-2 cell line (tumor of larynx) with inhibitory concentration percent of (IC %) range (32.43 % - 49.55%) and showed that the tested compounds had variable antimicrobial activities against selected bacteria and yeast when compared with selected standard drugs.