An ethnopharmacological investigation of medicinal Salvia plants (Lamiaceae) in China

Abstract

In China, over 40 species of the genus Salvia have been used as medicinal plants for various diseases, some for thousands of years. Recently, research has focused on the biological activities of Salvia medicinal plants used in traditional chinese medicine (TCM). However, to date a scientific survey of the genus Salvia in China has not been carried out. In this paper, we report the results of 10 field surveys of Salvia medicinal plants collected in 17 provinces including detailed information on their local names, growing environment, distribution and therapeutic effects. We also summarize the results of research on the materia medica, phytochemistry and pharmacology of some of the important Salvia medicinal plants. Our study reveals that 35 Salvia plants have been used in TCM in different regions of China, including 20 species used as Danshen to treat heart diseases, and 15 species used to treat a range of other conditions including gynecological diseases, muscular or skeletal problems, hepatitis, urological diseases, and mouth and eye conditions. It is clear that some species of Salvia L. possess significant pharmacological activity in the context of ethnopharmacological knowledge, especially in the treatment of heart disease. Further studies of the phytochemistry and pharmacology of Salvia species will no doubt improve their medical utilization and contribute to the development of new natural drugs.

Phytochemical and biological research of Salvia medicinal resources

“…14.5 Chemotaxonomy and metabolomics HPLC/DAD was used for studying the distribution of tanshinones and phenolic acids in some Chinese Salvia species (Li et al, 2013b). The distributions of tanshinones are distinct in the subgenus level.…”

“…However, the intersectional variation of polyphenolics is significant (Li et al, 2013b), which may be due to both genetic and environmental factors. However, the intersectional variation of polyphenolics is significant (Li et al, 2013b), which may be due to both genetic and environmental factors.…”

The anticancer properties of phytochemical extracts from Salvia plants

“…20 Tanshinones are quite well known abietane diterpenes, first isolated from S. miltiorrhiza. Salvia officinalis ( Figure 1C), another important sage widely used in Europe for both culinary and medicinal preparations, 21,22 is reported to have the highest amount of essential oil in leaves compared to the other species of Salvia, which exhibits potent antioxidant capacity, as well as anticancer, antispasmodic, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and carminative and mucolytic activities. 18,19,23,24 Many other species of the genus Salvia have also been studied for their composition and most of the phytochemicals are with potential anticancer properties ( Table 1).…”

Systemic Exposure to and Disposition of Catechols Derived from Salvia miltiorrhiza Roots (Danshen) after Intravenous Dosing DanHong Injection in Human Subjects, Rats, and Dogs

“…Several reports on meta-analyses of randomized trials show that DanHong injection is effective in treating angina pectoris, congestive heart failure, and acute ischemic stroke (Peng et al, 2010(Peng et al, , 2011Yang and Zeng, 2012). DanHong injection contains multiple water-soluble polyphenols of Danshen-origin Li et al, 2013;Xie et al, 2014). 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.…”