Extracts of 41 medicinal plants used in Egyptian folk medicine were screened for their inhibitory effects on human immunodeficiency virus-1 reverse transcriptase. The extracts of fruits of Phyllanthus emblica, Quercus pedunculata, Rumex cyprius, Terminalia bellerica, Terminalia chebula and Terminalia horrida showed significant inhibitory activity with IC₅₀≤50 μg/ml. Through a bioassay guided-fractionation of the methanol extract of the fruit of P. emblica, putranjivain A (1) was isolated as a potent inhibitory substance with IC₅₀=3.9 μM, together with 1, 6-di-O-galloyl-β-D-glucose (2), 1-O-galloyl-β-D-glucose (3), kaempferol-3-O-β-D-glucoside (4), quercetin-3-O-β-D-glucoside (5) and digallic acid (6). The inhibitory mode of action by 1, 2 and 6 was non-competitive with respect to the substrate but competitive with respect to a template-primer. Furthermore, the stereochemistry of 1 was established in this paper by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.