Objective To apply high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS) method in analyzing and identifying the main components in the ethanol extract of Choerospondiatis fructus. Methods The ethanol extract of Choerospondiatis fructus was prepared by the refluxing methods, and the main components in the extracts were separated by the gradient elution method with Agilent TC-C₁₈ column (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm), methanol-0.2% formic acid as the mobile phase, at flow rate 0.7 mL/min, column temperature 30℃, and sample volume 25 μL. Mass spectrometry was applied for the qualitative analysis under the positive and negative ion modes and ESI ion source was used for mass spectra, V_cap 4.0 kV, drying gas 10 L/min, gas temperature 350℃, and nebulizer 35 psi (1 psi=6 894.8 Pa). The main chromatographic peaks were assigned by Q-TOF. Results Forty-two compounds were identified through direct comparison of both positive and negative ion mass data, the element composition analysis, the data of the literature and the information from reference substances, including amino acids, organic acids, and flavonoids. Among them 17 constituents have been firstly found in Choerospondiatis fructus. Conclusion HPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS has the advantage of the efficient separation ability of HPLC and highly sensitive detection of MS, and is capable of making a qualitative analysis of the main components in Choerospondiatis fructus, which provides an evidence for study.