Salvia miltiorrhiza (Danshen) – An NMR-metabolomic and HPTLC – based analysis of products' quality

Radix Salviae miltiorrhizae is the only source of Danshen in pharmacopeias. For thousands of years it has been used in China for vascular and pain-related diseases [1]. Nowadays, costumers are able to buy a variety of products derived from Danshen in different parts of the world, including Europe and America as well as some Asian countries [2]. However, in some regions Danshen substitutes including Salvia przewalskii Maxim, S. bowleyana Dunn, and S. sinica Migo have been used. Such local substitutes are often erroneously called Danshen [3, 4]. The global rise of Danshen-related products in different supply chains puts into question the consistency of product quality and the accuracy of information provided by suppliers. This project aims to understand the chemical variability among Danshen-related products sold on different markets and subsequently, to link this to a value chain analysis of Danshen-related products. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry (¹H-NMR) metabolomics approach coupled with high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) were used to analyse the chemicals within Danshen products we collected from all types of sellers including wholesalers, suppliers and manufacturers. Principle component analysis (PCA) was applied to assess the chemical similarity and variability of the samples. Ninety-seven dried roots of Danshen, its substitutes and Danshen-derived final products were sampled from different companies. Seven out of twenty-eight final products were highly likely to contain no Radix Salviae miltiorrhizae. Six sourced from online stores contained no either salvianolic acid B or tanshinone IIA. Only six of these final products had significant salvianolic acid B and tanshinone IIA, the chemical standards for S. miltiorrhiza. In the ¹H-NMR based analysis, the chemical composition of an authenticated sample of S. bowleyana (Kew Gardens) was similar to the S. miltiorrhiza Bunge standard from the National Institute of Food and Drug Centre (NIFDC), while the S. przewalskii samples contained an extremely low level of salvianolic acid B.

Fig. 1: PCA score plot based on ¹H-NMR spectroscopy data

The results illustrate the variable composition of Danshen-labelled products sold on the market. It raises concerns regarding the manufactures' processing and the need of developing analytical tools. It also shows the possibility of using S. bowleyana as acceptable source of Danshen instead of S. miltiorrhiza only but more detailed chemical analyses are needed.

Keywords: Danshen, Salvia miltiorrhiza, Salvia przewalskii, Salvia bowleyana, final products, metabolomics, ¹H-NMR, HPTLC, PCA.

References:

[1] Zhou LM, Zuo Z, Chow MSS. Danshen: An overview of its chemistry, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and clinical use. J Clin Pharmacol 2005; 45: 1345 – 1359

[2] Chu Y, Zhang L, Wang X-y et al. The effect of Compound Danshen Dripping Pills, a Chinese herb medicine, on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of warfarin in rats. J Ethnopharmacol 2011; 137: 1457 – 1461

[3] Li M-H, Chen J-M, Peng Y et al. Investigation of Danshen and related medicinal plants in China. J Ethnopharmacol 2008; 120: 419 – 426

[4] Li Q-Q, Li M-H, Yuan Q-J et al.Phylogenetic relationships of Salvia (Lamiaceae) in China: Evidence from DNA sequence datasets. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 2013; 51: 184 – 195