“…The Danshen polyphenols contain one or more ortho-dihydroxy benzene rings, known as catechols, and have one or more carboxylic acid functional groups, except for protocatechuic aldehyde. They are caffeic acid derivatives, occurring as monomers (such as tanshinol and caffeic acid), dimers (such as rosmarinic acid and salvianolic acid D), trimers (such as salvianolic acid A and lithospermic acid), and tetramers (such as salvianolic acid B) (Jiang et al, 2005;Li et al, 2009). Cell-and isolatedtissue-based studies have shown that Danshen catechols exhibited vasodilating, endothelial protective, cardioprotective, antithrombotic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties; tanshinol and other Danshen catechols also decreased blood pressure in rats and attenuated venular thrombosis, cardiac hypertrophy, and methionine-induced hyperhomocysteinemia in rats (Jiang et al, 2005;Han et al, 2008;Cao et al, 2009;Ho and Hong, 2011;Wang et al, 2013a).…”