4.1.1 Danshen

4.1.1 Danshen

Danshen is the dried root and rhizome of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge., a perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the genus Salvia in the family Lamiaceae. It is distributed across most regions of China, with major production areas in Jiangsu, Anhui, Sichuan, and other provinces. Its taste is bitter, its nature slightly cold, and it enters the Heart, Pericardium, and Liver meridians. The main functions of Danshen include promoting blood circulation to remove stasis, regulating menstruation to relieve pain, clearing the heart to alleviate restlessness, and treating irregular menstruation, amenorrhea with dysmenorrhea, stabbing pain in the chest and abdomen, hepatosplenomegaly, restlessness and insomnia, and angina pectoris. The main chemical components of Danshen are salvianolic acid B, lithospermic acid B, tanshinone I, tanshinone IIA, tanshinone IIB, and cryptotanshinone. Among them, tanshinone is the active ingredient responsible for Danshen's anti-tumor effects, directly killing tumor cells and inducing their differentiation and apoptosis. Liu J, Shen HM, and Ong CN reported that Danshen inhibits the growth of liver cancer cells and induces their apoptosis, demonstrating significant cytotoxicity and markedly suppressing liver cancer cell proliferation.

Research on Pei Zhengxue’s Series of Formulas and Medications

Liu et al. found that Danshen can prevent intrahepatic and distant metastases in nude mice with early- and late-stage human liver cancer after surgical resection, potentially by inhibiting the invasive and adhesive abilities of the SMMC-7721 liver cancer cell line (7721 cells).