Effects of Danshen on the Cardiovascular System

Large amounts of literature and long-term clinical practice have confirmed that Danshen offers protection over myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury as a kind of traditional Chinese medicine to promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis. Moreover, it can also inhibit myocardial cell hypertrophy, prevent cardiac arrhythmia, and treat viral myocarditis. Danshen is clinically used for the protection of cardiac muscle and as an adjunctive therapy for pneumocardial disease during operations on the heart. Danshen can directly relax the coronary artery muscle muscle , and thus it can be clinically applied to the treatment of coronary heart disease and can improve microcirculation by promoting blood circulation , removing blood stasis, and inhibiting blood clotting, can reduce the viscosity of blood and significantly improve the hyperviscosity of blood, and finally inhibit thrombogenesis. Danshen can inhibit the proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells, protect the functions of blood vessel endothelium, and indirectly exert its regulatory functions through the inhibitory effects of the “dangerous risks” of hypertension, and its injection can be used for the treatment of acute hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage. The pharmacological action of Danshen on cardiovascular system diseases and its mechanisms will be discussed in full scale in this chapter.