Ursolic acid (UA) is a major bioactive component in many traditional medicinal plants including pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) flower. In vitro and in vivo studies have both revealed that UA has many important biological functions.In this study, a rapid and efficient procedure for preparation of UA from an Iranian pomegranate flower cultivar using ultrasound-assisted extraction followed by normal-phase flash chromatography (NP-FC) was developed. After one flash chromatography run, the purity of UA reached more than 97% with a total yield of 0.1% of dried pomegranate flower powder. The chemical structure of isolated UA was identified by IR, MS and NMR spectra. This is the first report on isolation of UA from pomegranate flowers. The NP-FC method was shown to be a good method for the purification of UA from pomegranate flowers, and it can be an excellent basis for large-scale preparation of UA from pomegranate flowers or other plant extracts. تفاصيل المقالة