Cercidiphyllum japonicum Sieb. et Zucc. also known as Katsura, is a tree in Cercidiphyllum, the sole genus of the family Cercidiphyllaceae. This species is well represented in the fossil record, with occurrence in the late Cretaceous and Tertiary of Europe and North America. Unfortunately, C. japonicum is currently only distributed in China, Japan and Korea, where its raw extracts have long been used in folk remedies to treat various of disorders or diseases. In the current work, chemical constituent s of C. japonicum branches were studies for the first time and seven constituents were isolated, including a new galloylflavonol glycoside, namely 8-methoxykaempferol-4'-O-galloyl-3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside (VII), and six known phenolics [two anomeric galloyltannins (3,4,6-tri-O-galloyl-β-D-glucopyranoside (I) and 2,2',5-tri-O-galloyl-α/β-D-hamamelose (III)), one anomeric ellagitannin , pedunculagin (II), one flavonol, kaempferol (V), and two flavonol derivatives (kaempferol-3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside (IV) and 8-methoxykaempferol (VI))]. Structure elucidation of the extractives I~VII were conducted mainly on the basis of their spectroscopic (UV, IR, NMR, MS) and chemo-physical analysis, as well as by comparison with literature values. Compound I, II, IV and VI have not yet been reported from the genus Cercidiphyllum. Compound VII, a previously undescribed flavonoid, was isolated and elucidated in this work for the first time.
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Acknowledgements: This work was funded by the Foundation of Introduction of Overseas Technical and Managerial Personnel Program of Tianjin (20181200101), P.R. China.