Jie Huang¹ , Chuchu Liu²

1 Tropical Medicinal Plant Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China
2 Institute of Life Science, Jiyang College of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China
Author    Correspondence author
Medicinal Plant Research, 2025, Vol. 15, No. 5   doi: 10.5376/mpr.2025.15.0025
Received: 20 Aug., 2025    Accepted: 25 Sep., 2025    Published: 26 Oct., 2025

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Huang J., and Liu C.C., 2025, Protective mechanisms of Salvia miltiorrhiza extracts in ischemic heart disease models, Medicinal Plant Research, 15(5): 233-243 (doi: 10.5376/mpr.2025.15.0025)

Ischemic heart disease (IHD), is one of the diseases with the highest mortality rate worldwide. Its pathogenesis includes oxidative stress, inflammatory response, apoptosis and myocardial remodeling, etc. S. miltiorrhiza, as a traditional Chinese medicine, has long been used to treat cardiovascular diseases. This study explored the multi-target protective mechanism of S. miltiorrhiza extract in the IHD experimental model. It demonstrated that, the lipophilic components, like tanshinone, and water-soluble components (such as salvianolic acid) in S. miltiorrhiza work in synergy in terms of antioxidation, anti-inflammation, anti-apoptosis, and promoting angiogenesis. Its action pathways include signaling pathways, like PI3K/Akt, Nrf2/HO-1, MAPK and TLR4/NF-κB, which can alleviate myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury, improve cardiac function and inhibit myocardial fibrosis. Animal and cell experiments, further verified its mechanism of action in regulating metabolic pathways, promoting endothelial protection and improving hemodynamics. The results of previous studies are positive, but more clinical trials are needed to confirm them. This study provides a theoretical basis and experimental evidence for the modern pharmacological development of S. miltiorrhiza, and the treatment of ischemic heart disease.

Salvia miltiorrhiza extract; Ischemic heart disease; Antioxidant; Multi-target mechanism; Signal pathway; Myocardial protection