Herbal substance developed for cardiovascular disease

Danshen, also known as salvia multiorrhizae bunge or red-rooted sage, is used locally by pharmaceutical companies producing both Western and traditional Chinese medicine and such medicine is usually very expensive, according to TARI researcher Lin Yi-kung.

Taiwan's pharmaceutical companies import as much as NT$6 million(US$178,042) -worth of the plant each year to use in their preparations.

Extract of danshen is made mainly from the roots of the plant, which the TARI harvests in late January after a cultivation period of 18 months to ensure the maximum content of tanshinone IIA, an active ingredient from which salvianolic acid B can be extracted, said Lin.

Besides the roots, Lin went on, TARI researchers have also been extracting salvianolioc acid B from the leaves of the plant.

Using a specially designed extraction system, TARI can produce salvianolic acid B up to a purity of 98 percent -- much higher than that of the imported variety which mainly comes from China -- from the red-rooted salvia cultivated at the TARI base, which is located in Wufeng township in the central county of Taichung, Lin said.

TARI will be pleased to transfer the cultivation technique to interested parties in Taiwan, he continued.

Danshen is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine, often in combination with other herbs, to treat a diversity of ailments, particularly cardiovascular disorders such as hardening of the arteries and blood clotting.

Extract of danshen is also widely used in pharmaceutical preparations for asthmatic bronchitis, glaucoma, kidney disease, liver disease, diabetes and lung cancer.

According to a Ministry of Economic Affairs survey, danshen is the most-used Chinese herb in terms of single, isolated ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine preparations, as well as being one of the most-studied medical herbs, second only to ginseng.

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