Dihydrobaicalin

Dihydrobaicalin at a Glance

Dihydrobaicalin is a flavanone glucuronide — the 2,3-dihydro (flavanone) analogue of the skullcap flavone baicalin, carrying the same 5,6,7-trihydroxy pattern with a sugar (glucuronic acid) attached at the 7-position. It occurs in the aerial parts of American skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora), where it sits among the plant’s predominant flavonoids alongside baicalin, lateriflorin and baicalein ^{1Reference 1Gafner S et al. · 2003Analysis of Scutellaria lateriflora and its adulterants Teucrium canadense and Teucrium chamaedrys by LC-UV/MS, TLC, and digital photomicroscopyView study →}.

Its documented significance is analytical, not pharmacological. Dihydrobaicalin has essentially no research record of its own as a bioactive molecule; what it is known for is being one of the chemical fingerprints that distinguish authentic S. lateriflora from the differently-used Chinese skullcap (S. baicalensis) and — more importantly for safety — from germander (Teucrium spp.), a look-alike adulterant that contains hepatotoxic diterpenes ^{1,2Reference 1Gafner S et al. · 2003Analysis of Scutellaria lateriflora and its adulterants Teucrium canadense and Teucrium chamaedrys by LC-UV/MS, TLC, and digital photomicroscopyView study →Reference 2Lin LZ et al. · 2009Comparison of the phenolic component profiles of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and germander (Teucrium canadense and T. chamaedrys), a potentially hepatotoxic adulterantView study →}.

This is a genuinely thin molecule. The honest summary is that dihydrobaicalin is a marker compound whose value is in quality control, and that the flavonoid pharmacology usually discussed for skullcap belongs to its better-studied relatives (baicalin, baicalein, scutellarin, wogonin), not to dihydrobaicalin specifically.

The Authentication Fingerprint (Skullcap vs. Germander)

This is the point of the page. American skullcap has a long-documented adulteration problem: because Scutellaria lateriflora is a modest-yielding herb that resembles other mints, it has occasionally been substituted or diluted in commerce with germander (Teucrium canadense and T. chamaedrys) — plants that contain potentially hepatotoxic diterpenes and that have been implicated in liver injury attributed to “skullcap” products ^{2Reference 2Lin LZ et al. · 2009Comparison of the phenolic component profiles of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and germander (Teucrium canadense and T. chamaedrys), a potentially hepatotoxic adulterantView study →}. Distinguishing the two botanically is therefore a real public-safety task, not a taxonomic nicety.

Chemistry solves it cleanly, and dihydrobaicalin is part of the solution. The 70% ethanol extract of authentic S. lateriflora is characterised by flavonoids — predominantly baicalin, lateriflorin, dihydrobaicalin and baicalein — whereas the Teucrium adulterants are dominated by phenylpropane glycosides (phenylethanoids), chiefly verbascoside and teucrioside, which are absent from true skullcap ^{1Reference 1Gafner S et al. · 2003Analysis of Scutellaria lateriflora and its adulterants Teucrium canadense and Teucrium chamaedrys by LC-UV/MS, TLC, and digital photomicroscopyView study →}. The presence of the skullcap flavonoid set (including dihydrobaicalin) alongside the absence of the Teucrium phenylethanoids is what confirms identity.

Later profiling work refined this into a quantitative screen: an LC-DAD-ESI/MS method built on the same flavonoid-vs-phenylethanoid contrast could detect as little as ~5% germander mixed into skullcap ^{2Reference 2Lin LZ et al. · 2009Comparison of the phenolic component profiles of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and germander (Teucrium canadense and T. chamaedrys), a potentially hepatotoxic adulterantView study →}. So dihydrobaicalin’s job is to be reliably present in the authentic herb — one signal in a flavonoid fingerprint that, read against the tell-tale germander markers, keeps a hepatotoxic adulterant out of the supply.

Two caveats keep this honest. First, the specific discriminating markers are the Teucrium phenylethanoids (verbascoside, teucrioside); the skullcap flavonoids, dihydrobaicalin included, establish the positive identity of S. lateriflora rather than singling out the adulterant. Second, flavonoid content in S. lateriflora is highly variable between commercial products — some tinctures contain almost none ^{4,6Reference 4Gao J et al. · 2008Validation of a HPLC method for flavonoid biomarkers in skullcap (Scutellaria) and its use to illustrate wide variability in the quality of commercial tincturesView study →Reference 6Makino T et al. · 2008Comparison of the major flavonoid content of S. baicalensis, S. lateriflora, and their commercial productsView study →} — so a fingerprint must be read as a pattern, not as a single guaranteed peak.

What It's Used For

There is no meaningful standalone pharmacology for dihydrobaicalin. It has not been the subject of a dedicated bioactivity study; where it appears in pharmacology papers, it is one flavonoid among several isolated from a skullcap extract, and the measured activity is attributed to other flavonoids in the set.

Evidence by IndicationStrength of support · Beta

Support is an experimental score — weighted by study type (human > animal > in vitro) and volume. A beta, not a validated metric. For dihydrobaicalin the top “application” is analytical (its real, documented use); the pharmacological row is deliberately low because the molecule is screened but not shown to be the active agent.

01Authentication marker (chemical fingerprint)Shaky38%Documented analytical use distinguishing S. lateriflora from S. baicalensis and Teucrium ^{1,2Reference 1Gafner S et al. · 2003Analysis of Scutellaria lateriflora and its adulterants Teucrium canadense and Teucrium chamaedrys by LC-UV/MS, TLC, and digital photomicroscopyView study →Reference 2Lin LZ et al. · 2009Comparison of the phenolic component profiles of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and germander (Teucrium canadense and T. chamaedrys), a potentially hepatotoxic adulterantView study →}

02Flavonoid bioactivity (by association only)Shaky8%Isolated in a 5-HT7 flavonoid screen, but activity belonged to scutellarin/ikonnikoside, not dihydrobaicalin ^{3,5Reference 3Gafner S et al. · 2003Inhibition of [3H]-LSD binding to 5-HT7 receptors by flavonoids from Scutellaria laterifloraView study →Reference 5Awad R et al. · 2003Phytochemical and biological analysis of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora L.): a medicinal plant with anxiolytic propertiesView study →}

Mechanisms

No target-level pharmacology has been characterised for dihydrobaicalin itself. The table records where the molecule appears in the literature — an analytical marker, and a bystander in flavonoid pharmacology.

Pharmacokinetics

No pharmacokinetic data exist for dihydrobaicalin. Absorption, oral bioavailability, metabolism and half-life are all uncharacterised for this compound. The only reasonable expectation is by structural analogy to its flavone relative baicalin: flavonoid-7-O-glucuronides are generally poorly absorbed intact and tend to be hydrolysed by gut microbiota to their aglycones — but this behaviour has not been measured for dihydrobaicalin, and should be treated as an untested inference rather than a finding.

Clinical Trials

There are no clinical trials of dihydrobaicalin, and no preclinical study of the isolated molecule as a therapeutic agent. Its entire research footprint is analytical (herb authentication) and incidental (co-isolation in flavonoid screens).

Last checked: July 2026.

Isolate vs. Plant Studies

Every mention of dihydrobaicalin in the literature is a whole-plant / extract observation, never an isolate study. It is detected and named as a flavonoid of S. lateriflora aerial-parts extracts ^{1Reference 1Gafner S et al. · 2003Analysis of Scutellaria lateriflora and its adulterants Teucrium canadense and Teucrium chamaedrys by LC-UV/MS, TLC, and digital photomicroscopyView study →}, and co-isolated during fractionation of those extracts ^{3Reference 3Gafner S et al. · 2003Inhibition of [3H]-LSD binding to 5-HT7 receptors by flavonoids from Scutellaria laterifloraView study →} — but it has not been purified and tested on its own for any biological endpoint. There is therefore no isolate-vs-plant transferability question to weigh: the molecule has a plant-chemistry identity and no isolate pharmacology at all. This is exactly what one expects of a marker compound.

Prevalence in Nature

Dihydrobaicalin is reported chiefly from the aerial parts of American skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora), where it is one of the predominant flavonoids of the 70% ethanol extract, alongside baicalin, lateriflorin and baicalein ^{1Reference 1Gafner S et al. · 2003Analysis of Scutellaria lateriflora and its adulterants Teucrium canadense and Teucrium chamaedrys by LC-UV/MS, TLC, and digital photomicroscopyView study →}. It has not been individually quantified in the sources located — the fingerprint literature reports it as a present, characteristic peak rather than a measured percentage.

Its distribution beyond S. lateriflora is poorly documented; flavanone/flavone glucuronides of this type are broadly characteristic of the genus Scutellaria, but no well-quantified occurrence in other species was found in this pass. Two general facts about the parent herb bound any abundance claim: the diagnostic flavonoids of S. lateriflora localise to the leaves/aerial parts (in contrast to S. baicalensis, whose flavones concentrate in the root) ^{7Reference 7Costine B et al. · 2022Exploring native Scutellaria species provides insight into differential accumulation of flavones with medicinal propertiesView study →}, and total flavonoid content is extremely variable across commercial products, with some tinctures and supplements containing essentially none ^{4,6Reference 4Gao J et al. · 2008Validation of a HPLC method for flavonoid biomarkers in skullcap (Scutellaria) and its use to illustrate wide variability in the quality of commercial tincturesView study →Reference 6Makino T et al. · 2008Comparison of the major flavonoid content of S. baicalensis, S. lateriflora, and their commercial productsView study →}.

Discovery & Synthesis

Dihydrobaicalin does not have a classic “first isolation / first total synthesis” story in the sources located. It enters the record in the early 2000s as a named flavonoid marker of Scutellaria lateriflora, most prominently in the analytical work of Gafner and colleagues (2003), who characterised the herb’s flavonoid profile expressly to separate it from Teucrium adulterants ^{1Reference 1Gafner S et al. · 2003Analysis of Scutellaria lateriflora and its adulterants Teucrium canadense and Teucrium chamaedrys by LC-UV/MS, TLC, and digital photomicroscopyView study →}. Its structure is that of dihydrobaicalein 7-O-glucuronide — the flavanone (2,3-dihydro) analogue of baicalin (molecular formula C21H20O11) — so it is most simply understood as a reduced congener of the far better-known baicalin rather than a compound with an independent discovery narrative.

No total or semi-synthesis of dihydrobaicalin was located, and it is not manufactured as a commercial isolate; where it is needed (as an analytical reference), it derives from S. lateriflora extract rather than synthesis.

Patents: not yet researched.

Toxicity & Safety

Dihydrobaicalin carries a low flag. It is a minor, glucuronidated plant flavonoid of a class with no characteristic toxicity, present in a herb (American skullcap) that is itself generally well tolerated when correctly identified. Critically, the hepatotoxicity associated with “skullcap” is not a property of dihydrobaicalin — it traces to germander (Teucrium) adulteration, whose diterpenes cause the liver injury; dihydrobaicalin is on the authentic side of that distinction and is in fact one of the markers used to keep the adulterant out ^{1,2Reference 1Gafner S et al. · 2003Analysis of Scutellaria lateriflora and its adulterants Teucrium canadense and Teucrium chamaedrys by LC-UV/MS, TLC, and digital photomicroscopyView study →Reference 2Lin LZ et al. · 2009Comparison of the phenolic component profiles of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and germander (Teucrium canadense and T. chamaedrys), a potentially hepatotoxic adulterantView study →}. No dedicated toxicology, genotoxicity or drug-interaction data exist for the isolated molecule, so the badge reflects an absence of concern and structural class, not a positive safety dataset.

Safety at a Glance

✅ Low / no toxicity

• Minor benign plant flavonoid. A flavanone glucuronide of American skullcap with no characteristic toxicity and no reported adverse effects as an isolate.
• On the safe side of the adulteration story. Dihydrobaicalin is a marker of authentic S. lateriflora — the documented liver toxicity belongs to germander (Teucrium) adulterants, not to this molecule ^{1,2Reference 1Gafner S et al. · 2003Analysis of Scutellaria lateriflora and its adulterants Teucrium canadense and Teucrium chamaedrys by LC-UV/MS, TLC, and digital photomicroscopyView study →Reference 2Lin LZ et al. · 2009Comparison of the phenolic component profiles of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and germander (Teucrium canadense and T. chamaedrys), a potentially hepatotoxic adulterantView study →}.
• The real hazard is identity, not the molecule. “Skullcap” products adulterated with hepatotoxic germander are the genuine safety concern; source botanically verified material ^{2Reference 2Lin LZ et al. · 2009Comparison of the phenolic component profiles of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and germander (Teucrium canadense and T. chamaedrys), a potentially hepatotoxic adulterantView study →}.
• No isolate safety data. No toxicology, interaction or pregnancy data exist for dihydrobaicalin specifically; absence of reports is not evidence of safety.

Dosage

There is no dose for dihydrobaicalin. It is not sold or used as an isolated supplement and has never been dosed on its own — it is a marker compound identified in skullcap extracts. Any exposure is incidental to taking whole American skullcap, in which it is a minor flavonoid, and even then its content varies enormously between products ^{4,6Reference 4Gao J et al. · 2008Validation of a HPLC method for flavonoid biomarkers in skullcap (Scutellaria) and its use to illustrate wide variability in the quality of commercial tincturesView study →Reference 6Makino T et al. · 2008Comparison of the major flavonoid content of S. baicalensis, S. lateriflora, and their commercial productsView study →}. These are research and analytical observations, not a personal recommendation.

References

1. Gafner S, Bergeron C, Batcha LL, Angerhofer CK, Sudberg S, Sudberg EM, Guinaudeau H, Gauthier R (2003). Analysis of Scutellaria lateriflora and its adulterants Teucrium canadense and Teucrium chamaedrys by LC-UV/MS, TLC, and digital photomicroscopy. Journal of AOAC International. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12852558/
2. Lin LZ, Harnly JM, Upton R (2009). Comparison of the phenolic component profiles of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and germander (Teucrium canadense and T. chamaedrys), a potentially hepatotoxic adulterant. Phytochemical Analysis. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19402188/
3. Gafner S, Bergeron C, Batcha LL, Reich J, Arnason JT, Burdette JE, Pezzuto JM, Angerhofer CK (2003). Inhibition of [3H]-LSD binding to 5-HT7 receptors by flavonoids from Scutellaria lateriflora. Journal of Natural Products. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12713409/
4. Gao J, Sanchez-Medina A, Pendry BA, Hughes MJ, Webb GP, Corcoran O (2008). Validation of a HPLC method for flavonoid biomarkers in skullcap (Scutellaria) and its use to illustrate wide variability in the quality of commercial tinctures. Journal of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18445366/
5. Awad R, Arnason JT, Trudeau V, Bergeron C, Budzinski JW, Foster BC, Merali Z (2003). Phytochemical and biological analysis of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora L.): a medicinal plant with anxiolytic properties. Phytomedicine. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14692724/
6. Makino T, Hishida A, Goda Y, Mizukami H (2008). Comparison of the major flavonoid content of S. baicalensis, S. lateriflora, and their commercial products. Journal of Natural Medicines. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18404307/
7. Costine B, Zhang M, Chhajed S, Pearson B, Chen S, Nadakuduti SS (2022). Exploring native Scutellaria species provides insight into differential accumulation of flavones with medicinal properties. Scientific Reports. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35915209/

View all 7 references▾