Active Constituents in Danshen and Their Pharmacological Actions

Early in the 1930s, studies were initiated on the material basis of pharmacological activity in Danshen. Initially, major liposoluble constituents, e.g., tanshinone I, cryptotanshinone, tanshinone IIA, and tanshinone IIB, were isolated from the root of Danshen. In the 1940s, Wang Xu et al. proved that tanshinone I structurally belongs to the tetracyclic compounds of diterpene quinone. In the 1970s, a large number of studies in China were conducted on the chemistry and pharmacology of lipo- and water-soluble constituents in Danshen. In recent years, with extensive application of new techniques and improvements in the techniques of compound isolation and analysis, more and more chemical constituents have been identified from Danshen.