A new flavan from the plant leaf extract of cucurbita moschata

Cucurbita moschata leaves were extracted with methanol to obtain the crude extract. The crude extract was subjected to fractionation using n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol. The phytochemical screening of the fractions obtained revealed presence of flavonoids in the ethyl acetate fraction only. This fraction was subjected to both column and thin layer chromatography which resulted in the isolation of a pure compound. This compound was characterized using both physical and spectroscopic techniques such as UV, IR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR. The isolated compound was identified as 5, 7-diethyl- 3, 4-dimethoxyl-2', 6'-dimethyl flavan.