English

Abstract

Dalbergia odorifera T. Chen, as an important traditional Chinese medicinal plant, has been used in China over a long history. The chemical composition of volatile oil extracted from the D. odorifera flowers is described for the first time here. The volatile oil was extracted by hydro-distillation, and GC-MS was used for the chemical composition analysis. Tectorigenin, an isoflavonoid, was also isolated from the flowers. The structure of tectorigenin was established based on 1H and 13C NMR and HR-ESI-MS spectrometry. The main components of the volatile oil from the flowers were 4-hydroxy-4-methyl-2-pentanone (28.35%), phenethyl alcohol (12.17%), cis-5-ethenyltetrahydro-α, α-5-trimethyl-2-furanmethanol (8.71%), toluene (7.64%), p-xylene (5.93%), benzyl alcohol (5.72%) and ethylbenzene (5.35%). The tectorigenin contents in the xylem, phloem and leaves were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as 75.44 μg/g, 104.26 μg/g and 393.11 μg/g, respectively, on a dry weight basis and 49.32 μg/g, 51.98 μg/g and 74.45 μg/g, respectively, on a fresh weight basis. The study provides an important theoretical basis for the further development and application of the D. odorifera flowers and tectorigenin. © 2021 Friends Science Publishers