Danshen
Tan-shên of Stuart; Chinese sage, red sage; Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge; in pharmacy Salviae miltiorrhizae radix et rhizoma
- Known today as
- Salvia miltiorrhiza, a sage of the family Lamiaceae which Stuart, in 1911, found grown in Shensi, Shansi, and Shantung and common in the Peking mountains, with three to seven hairy leaves and large violet flowers. The root is red outside and purplish within when fresh, and is sold “in short, shrivelled pieces of a bright, brick-red color,” sweetish, like liquorice. The European Medicines Agency’s assessment report divides its more than 200 compounds into water-soluble phenolics, salvianolic acid B among them, and fat-soluble diterpenoids, the tanshinones.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- salvianolic acid B, tanshinones
- Earliest authority here
- Stuart, Chinese Materia Medica (1911)
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online · GBIF · Wikidata
Caution. Danshen interacts with warfarin. The assessment report gathers case reports of patients on long-term warfarin whose INR rose, with over-anticoagulation and bleeding, after taking it, and cites the advice that it should be avoided by anyone taking warfarin; in rats it slowed the drug’s metabolism and raised its levels. The American Herbal Products Association’s safety handbook places it in interaction class C, herbs with known clinically relevant interactions.
Danshen: what was it used for?
A remedy of the blood. Stuart records it as “credited with alterative, antispasmodic, arthritic, tonic, sedative, astringent, and vulnerary properties,” and “highly recommended in all blood difficulties, hemorrhages, menstrual disorders, and miscarriages.” In China, the Cochrane reviewers note, it is widely used for several diseases, heart attack among them.
Danshen: what does modern science say?
The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee declined to adopt any monograph on the root (public statement of 2022). It acknowledged numerous publications but found that the preparations used were often not properly described, that neither well-established nor traditional use could be shown, and that most clinical studies lacked quality, with “poor design, small sample size and use of poorly defined products of uncertain composition and consistency.” A Cochrane review of 2008 on danshen preparations for acute myocardial infarction found only one genuine randomised trial among six studies and judged the evidence “too weak to make any judgement about its effects,” its safety unproven.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- salvianolic acid Bamong the water-soluble phenolics
- tanshinonesthe fat-soluble diterpenoids
- Mechanism
- Not established in the sources read for this entry.
- Standing
- There is no European monograph: the European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee declined to adopt one (public statement of 2022). A Cochrane review (2008) found the evidence for acute myocardial infarction too weak to judge.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Public statement on Salviae miltiorrhizae radix et rhizoma (Salvia miltiorrhiza root and rhizome ('Danshen')). EMA/HMPC/509931/2019, 30 March 2022. Read in full · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Assessment report on Salviae miltiorrhizae radix et rhizoma. EMA/HMPC/509932/2019, 30 March 2022. Read in part · the text read
- Wu T, et al. (2008). Danshen (Chinese medicinal herb) preparations for acute myocardial infarction. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews. PMID 18425903. Abstract read · the text read
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Danshen: what lore surrounds it?
Under ginseng, Stuart lists danshen among the roots called shên, each acting on its own organ, bistort on the liver and danshen on the heart; the books, he adds, make ginseng the restorer of the ‘yang’ principle and sha-shên the restorer of the ‘yin’.
Danshen: what did the older authorities say?
- Stuart, Chinese Materia Medica (1911)
- The root is one of the five astral remedies, the wu-shên, thought to correspond to the five colours and the five principal viscera, spleen, lungs, kidneys, liver, and heart; “This particular one belongs to the heart, and its red color suggests the blood.”
Sources
- Stuart, G. A. (1911). Chinese Materia Medica: Vegetable Kingdom, “Salvia miltiorrhiza.” Internet Archive, chinesemateriame00stuauoft. Read in part · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Public statement on Salviae miltiorrhizae radix et rhizoma (Salvia miltiorrhiza root and rhizome ('Danshen')). EMA/HMPC/509931/2019, 30 March 2022. Read in full · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Assessment report on Salviae miltiorrhizae radix et rhizoma. EMA/HMPC/509932/2019, 30 March 2022. Read in part · the text read
- Wu T, et al. (2008). Danshen (Chinese medicinal herb) preparations for acute myocardial infarction. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews. PMID 18425903. Abstract read · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 4 cited: 1 read in full, 2 read in part, 1 abstract read. 1 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Club members can point at a technical term in this entry, such as a constituent, an action, or a word of Jung’s, to read its definition from the source. The Club.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published October 16, 2026
- Chicago
“Danshen.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 16, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/danshen.
- MLA
“Danshen.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 16 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/danshen. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Danshen. (2026, October 16). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/danshen
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See Also
Drawing on the same sources: Stuart
Nearby in the alphabet
Deadly fibrecap (of spring and summer woods) · Dandelion (of the daisy family) · Deadly nightshade (of the nightshade family) · Damascus prunes (Prunus insititia, dried) · Deadly webcap · Cyprus powder (a perfumed toilet powder) · Death cap (white-gilled mushroom of oak and beech woods, now spread worldwide) · Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens)
Historical description, not medical advice.
