Salvia miltiorrhiza: A Potential Red Light to the Development of Cardiovascular Diseases

Abstract

Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge, also known as Danshen in Chinese, has been widely used to treat cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in China and other Asia countries. Here, we summarize literatures of the historical traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) interpretation of the action of Salvia miltiorrhiza, its use in current clinical trials, its main phytochemical constituents and its pharmacological findings by consulting Pubmed, China Knowledge Resource Integrated, China Science and Technology Journal, and the Web of Science Databases. Since 2000, 39 clinical trials have been identified that used S. miltiorrhiza in TCM prescriptions alone or with other herbs for the treatment of patients with CVD. More than 200 individual compounds have been isolated and characterized from S. miltiorrhiza, which exhibited various pharmacological activities targeting different pathways for the treatment of CVD in various animal and cell models. The isolated compounds may provide new perspectives in alternative treatment regimes and reveal novel chemical scaffolds for the development of anti-CVD drugs. Meanwhile, there are also some rising concerns of the potential side effects and drug-drug interactions of this plant. The insights gained from this study will help us to better understanding of the actions of this herb for management of cardiovascular disorders. As an herb of red root, S. miltiorrhiza will act as a potential red light to prevent the development of CVD.

Therapeutic Effects of Lithospermate B Complexed with Mg2+ or Zn2+ on Metabolic Syndrome Induced in Rats Fed with High-Fat Diet

“…Danshen is an essential and reliable herb or food for health promotion [17]. Other than polysaccharides and tanshinones, using an HFD rat model, our findings further provide evidence showing that the polyphenolic compounds, ZLB and MLB, represent alternative ingredients of Danshen in the protection against metabolic syndrome.…”

“…Increasing evidence shows that many herbal extracts and natural compounds have been implicated in the treatment of metabolic syndrome [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Particularly, Salvia miltiorrhiza (Danshen), a traditional Chinese medicine used for more than 2000 years, has been frequently prescribed to patients with cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, including diabetes [14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

Radix Salviae miltiorrhizae improves bone microstructure and strength through Wnt/β‐catenin and osteoprotegerin/receptor activator for nuclear factor‐κB ligand/cathepsin K signaling in ovariectomized rats

“…The major water‐soluble extract in RSM is phenolic acids (L. Wang, Ma, Liu, et al, ). As shown in Figure a,b as well as Table , several ingredients in RSM aqueous extract were characterized by HPLC‐DAD‐ESI‐MS n , including salvianolic acid H, rosmarinic acid, lithospermic acid, salvianolic acid B, and salvianolic acid L (Figure c).…”

An Ectosteric Inhibitor of Cathepsin K Inhibits Bone Resorption in Ovariectomized Mice

“…It should be noted that T06 is one of about 60 tanshinone‐related compounds found in S. miltiorrhiza , also known as Danshen in traditional Chinese medicine. Danshen is widely used as an herbal medicine to treat cardiovascular disorders such as atherosclerosis, stroke, and hyperlipidemia, and skeletal diseases such as arthritis and osteoporosis . For example, the herbal extract is a component in more than 30 herbal prescriptions for the treatment of osteoporosis where clinical trials have been reported .…”