Identification of Phytoconstituents in Leea indica (Burm. F.) Merr. Leaves by High Performance Liquid Chromatography Micro Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry.

Leea indica (Vitaceae) is a Southeast Asian medicinal plant. In this study, an ethyl acetate fraction of L. indica leaves was studied for its phytoconstituents using high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-microTOF-Q-MS/MS) analysis. A total of 31 compounds of different classes, including benzoic acid derivatives, phenolics, flavonoids, catechins, dihydrochalcones, coumarins, megastigmanes, and oxylipins were identified using LC-MS/MS. Among them, six compounds including gallic acid, methyl gallate, (-)-epigallocatechin-3- O -gallate, myricetin-3- O -rhamnoside, quercetin-3- O -rhamnoside, and 4',6'-dihydroxy-4-methoxydihydrochalcone 2'- O -β-d-glucopyranoside were isolated and identified by NMR analysis. The LC-MS/MS analysis led to the tentative identification of three novel dihydrochalcones namely 4',6'-dihydroxy-4-methoxydihydrochalcone 2'- O -rutinoside, 4',6'-dihydroxy-4-methoxydihydrochalcone 2'- O -glucosylpentoside and 4',6'-dihydroxy-4-methoxydihydrochalcone 2'- O -(3″- O -galloyl)-β-d-glucopyranoside. The structural identification of novel dihydrochalcones was based on the basic skeleton of the isolated dihydrochalcone, 4',6'-dihydroxy-4-methoxydihydrochalcone 2'- O -β-d-glucopyranoside and characteristic LC-MS/MS fragmentation patterns. This is the first comprehensive analysis for the identification of compounds from L. indica using LC-MS. A total 24 compounds including three new dihydrochalcones were identified for the first time from the genus Leea .