Rhododendron arboreum Sm. is very popular in the Indian Himalayan region due to its significant ethnomedicinal importance and potential commercial applications. Apart from the ornamental value derived from its vibrant red flowers, fresh flowers are used to prepare medicinal juices, and dried are utilized as spices. Despite being a rich source of phenolics, these lack identified marker chemicals and validated methods. The present work encompasses the chemical investigation of R. arboreum leaves using UHPLC-ESI-Q/TOF-MS/MS. The chemotypic variability was assessed through a reverse phase ultra-performance liquid chromatography method coupled with a photodiode array detector (RP-UPLC-PDA) chemical signatures of R. arboreum leaves from different altitudes combined with chemometric analysis. The chromatographic method was developed and validated for the quantitative analysis of three vital secondary metabolites, i.e., Isoquercetin or Quercetin-3-O-glucoside (Qg), Reynoutrin or Quercetin-3-O-xyloside (Qx), and Quercitrin or Quercetin-3-O-rhamnoside (Qr)The hyphenation of the method with ESI-Q/TOF-MS/MS has confirmed the distribution of 11 chemicals (nine known and two unknown) in R. arboreum leaves belonging to the phenolic and hydrolyzable tannins class. Samples from higher altitudes >3000 m (above mean sea level) were exceptionally rich in Quercitrin. The chemometric investigation, comprising hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), principal component analysis (PCA), and partial least square method-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), successfully categorized thirty-three samples from diverse geographic regions into two distinct categories. This current study provides a validated method for the chemotypic discrimination and quality assessment of the R. arboreum leaves from Uttarakhand, Western Himalayan region of India, and laid the foundation for the comprehensive utilization of these renewable and sustainable resources.

杜鹃花Sm。由于其重要的民族医学重要性和潜在的商业应用，在印度喜马拉雅地区非常受欢迎。除了鲜艳的红色花朵具有观赏价值外，鲜花还可用来制备药用汁液，干燥后可用作香料。尽管酚类物质来源丰富，但它们缺乏已识别的标记化学物质和经过验证的方法。目前的工作包括使用 UHPLC-ESI-Q/TOF-MS/MS 对R. arboreum叶子进行化学研究。通过反相超高效液相色谱法与光电二极管阵列检测器 (RP-UPLC-PDA) 结合不同海拔地区树莓叶子的化学特征并结合化学计量分析来评估化学型变异性。色谱方法的开发和验证用于定量分析三种重要的次生代谢物，即异槲皮素或槲皮素-3-O-葡萄糖苷 ( Qg )、Reynoutrin 或槲皮素-3-O-木糖苷 ( Qx ) 以及槲皮素或槲皮素- 3-O-鼠李糖苷 ( Qr ) 与 ESI-Q/TOF-MS/MS 方法的联用已确认 11 种化学物质（九种已知和两种未知）在属于酚类和可水解单宁类的R. arboreum叶子中的分布。来自较高海拔 >3000 米（平均海平面以上）的样品中槲皮素含量异常丰富。化学计量研究包括层次聚类分析 (HCA)、主成分分析 (PCA) 和偏最小二乘法判别分析 (PLS-DA)，成功地将来自不同地理区域的 33 个样本分为两个不同的类别。 本研究为印度西喜马拉雅地区北阿坎德邦树莓树叶的化学型判别和质量评估提供了有效的方法，为这些可再生和可持续资源的综合利用奠定了基础。