$re = '/^[^>]*>([^<]*)<*.*$/im';
$str = 'z>user1@hotmail.com<kt
z>user2@hotmail.pk<kt
z>puser3@yahoo.com<kt
z>npuser4@yaoo.uk<kt';
$subst = "\1";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php