A doctoral thesis was researched at the College of Education for Pure Sciences at the University of Basrah entitled (Biological activity of alkaloid compounds isolated and purified from two types of medicinal plants) by student Mona Abdul Muttalib Yahya Al-Mousawi.

 The current study revealed the extraction, diagnosis and purification of alkaloid compounds from two types of local plants in Basra Governorate, southern Iraq, namely, Engl (lancifolius Conocarpus) and Aiton (procera Calotropis).  Its anti-cancer activity has been tested against two types of cancer cell lines, in addition to its anti-oxidant activity in vivo.
 The results of the qualitative disclosures of alkaloid compounds showed their presence in the leaves of the capris plant, while they were found in each of the leaves and roots of the brocade plant. Two types of extraction methods were carried out in extracting the alkaloids, namely hot extraction (with saxolites) and cold extraction (soaking) using three types of solvents (methanol,  water and dichloromethane), which proved the superiority of hot methanol extraction in the percentage of net crude alkaloids extract for both plants.
 The results of the antibacterial activity, which were tested against four different types of pathogenic bacteria, which included some Gram-positive bacteria, Bacillus aureus subtilis Staphylococcus and Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia, pneumoniae Klebsiella, showed a significant superiority of MPO against the four studied bacteria.
  The results of the anti-cancer activity that were conducted against two types of cell lines, the breast cancer cell line 7-F-MC and the esophageal cancer cell line 4-GT-SK showed a significant cytotoxicity of collagen compound against the breast cancer cell line 7-F-MC with a value of IC50.  (it reached 33.55 μg/ml, while MPO showed significant selective cytotoxicity against esophageal cancer cell line 4-GT-SK with a value of IC50) which reached 85.7 μg/ml.  Raw alkaloid extract of brocade roots