Phytochemical analysis of Clerodendron trichotomum by UHPLC-ESI-MS

Clerodendron trichotomum Thunb. (Verbenaceae), widely distributed in Korea, Japan and China, has been traditionally used for the treatment of neuralgia, arthritis, cough and abdominal lump. Although water extract form (decoction) of the dried leaf and stem of C. trichotomum has been commonly consumed, there was no phytochemical analysis for determining the major constituents in the water extract. Therefore we performed phytochemical study on the water extract of C. trichotomum using UHPLC-DAD-ESI-MS technique. Four flavonoids, acacetin (m/z 285), clerodendrin (m/z 623), acacetin 7-glucuronosyl-glucuronide (m/z 637) and acacetin glucuronide (m/z 461) were identified as major constituents of the water extract by the comparison of their spectroscopic data with those in literatures. In this study, an UHPLC-ESI-MS fingerprint of Clerodendron trichotomum decoction was reported for the first time and the qualitative information on the major constituents was established for further studies on the quality control of herbal medicines and functional foods containing this species.