Ancient people used medicinal plant extract as ingredients in tradomedical portions and poisons. Over time, these traditional treatments have had the chance to become refined based on efficacy and safety. It was therefore hypothesised that plants that were used in the past and are still used today to treat symptoms associated with a particular disease condition are more likely to contain pharmacologically active metabolites than plants that have not been used continuously. The use of E. grandis in traditional medicines has been document. Ursolic acid (3β- hydroxyurs-12-en-28-oic acid) was isolated from the leaves of Eucarlyptus grandis. Column chromatography (normal phase), IR, LC-MS and NMR techniques were employed for the isolation and characterization of the compound. Presence of ursolic acid, a pentacyclic triterpene carboxylic acid in the leaves of E. grandis gives credence to the ethnomedical use of the plant leaves in the treatment of diseases.
