Abstract
Scutellariae plants contain a large number of flavonoids and in addition, many of them are with unusual A- and/or B-ring substitutions. The total number of flavonoids reported up to the middle of 1991 are 137 including 89 of flavones, flavonols and their glycosides including 3 C-glycosides$(1{\sim}89)$, 39 of flavanones, dihydroflavonols and their glycosides $(90{\sim}128)$, 8 of chalcones $(129{\sim}136)$ and one biflavonoid, 8, 8'-bibaicalein(137). More than half of the flavonoids are with either unusual 5-metboxy(2'-methoxy in case of chalcones) in A-ring and/or 2'-oxygenation(2-oxygenation in case of chalcones) in B-ring substitutions. Four flavones, four flavanones and two chalcones are with methylation at 5-OH(2'-OH in case of chalcones) and six of them also have 2'-oxygenations(2- in case of chalcones). Sixtyeight out of total 137 flavonoids have oxygenated substitution at 2'-(2- in case of chalcones) position of B-ring and in addition, 27 of them have another oxygen function at 6'-(6- in case of chalcones) and 18 of them have additional oxygen substitutions either at 3'-, 5'-,3',6'-or 3', 4', 5'-(3, 4, 5- in case of chalcones) positions. The distribution and isolation of flavonoid components of Scutellariae plants are tabulated with references.