Biological activities of Salvia L species

Abstract

Me dici nal plants have pro vided a wide range of pharma co logi cally ac tive sub stances. Herbs have been used since ages, in hun dreds of pur poses in clud ing medi cine, nu tri tion, bev er ages, dye ing, fra grances, cos met ics, decorat ing ele ments, and in dus trial uses. Even to day, in our "chemi cal and syn thetic" world, plants or sub stances isolated from them, are pres ent in 40% of pe scrip tion drugs [17].One of the most fa mous me dici nal plants is Sal via officina lis L. (com mon sage), the mem ber of the Lami aceae fam ily. The posi tive bene fits of S. of ficina lis to health is known from time im me mo rial. A quote: 'Cur mo ria tur homo cui Sal via crescit in horto?'-'Why should a man die whilst sage grows in his gar den?' shows how this plant was im por tant [15]. Com mon sage has been used in the treat ment of vari ous dis or ders, such us tu ber cu lo sis, psoria sis, and seb or rhoeic ec zemas. It has shown strong an ti bac te rial and an ti fun gal ac tivi ties [5,37]. Sev eral experi men tal stud ies have also dem on strated the an ti oxi dant [9,21], an tivi ral [31], and anti-inflammatory [3] prop erties of S. of ficina lis L. Sage leaves have been used in an ti sep tic and as trin gent herbal mix tures, whereas es sential oil dis til lated from com mon sage can be help ful in aro mather apy (mas sage, bath, in ha la tion), and in bac te rial in fec tions, cough and bron chi tis [2,36]. It has also been used as medi ca tion against aches, wounds, in som nia, mea sles, rheu ma tism, con gealed blood, sea sick ness, vene real dis ease and worms [6]. The thera peu tic ef fects of S. of ficina lis L. are due to the pres ence of fla vonoids, phenolic com pounds such as car no sic, ros marinic, caf feic ac ids, and other phe nolic structure-based com pounds espe cially found in alcohol-soluble frac tions [33]. Sage leaves con tain up to 2.5% of vola tile oil in which the princi pal com po nent is thu jone, ac com pa nied by 1,8-cineole and other mono-and ses qui ter pe noids [28].S. of ficina lis L. is one of the most wide spread Sal via L. spe cies. Al though, be sides com mon sage, this ge nus is rep re sented by about 900 other Sla via L. spe cies [15]. Among them, 134 spe cies have been sci en tifi cally studied, and many these plants are char ac ter ized by in ter est ing bio logi cal ac tivi ties [37]. The dried root of S. mil tior rhiza Bunge is one of the most popu lar herbal tra di tional medicines in Asian coun tries, es pe cially in China; S. canari en sis L. is widely used in the popu lar medi cine of the Ca nary Ar chi pel ago, while a mix ture of leaves of S. fulgens Cav. and S. mi cro phylla Kunth. is a tra di tional Mexi can medi cine -called 'mirto' -for stom ach ail ments [37]. Here we want to re view some of the bio logi cal activi ties of Sal via L. spe cies, e.g. an ti cho lin es ter ase, neuropro tec tive, anti can cer, an tivi ral, anti-inflammatory, and an ti oxi dant, among oth ers. AB STRACTSalvia officinalis L. is one of the most widespread species, and because ...

Bioactive phytochemicals from shoots and roots of Salvia species

“…For instance, bi-and tri-cyclic diterpenoids (Bonito et al 2011), triterpenoids (Topçu 2006) and polyphenols (Adzet et al 1988;Lu and Yeap Foo 2002) from the genus Salvia or the bioactive secondary metabolites from Tanshen; S. miltiorrhiza (Wang 2010) have been reviewed. Recently, the anticholinesterase, neuroprotective, anticancer, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activities of Salvia L. were summarized in a review paper (Dziurzynski et al 2013). …”

Traditional application of Sage (Salvia) in conductive education and its potential evidence– based background

“…Due to the rich array of chemical composition (phenolic acids, flavonoids, terpenoids, polysaccharides), plants of genus Salvia possess various pharmacological activities, including anticholinesterase, neuroprotective, anticancer, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant [ 31 ].…”