Dan Shen

Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae ( Danshen) Danshen Root Danshen Root is the dried root and rhizome of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. (Fam. Labiatae). The drug is collected in spring or autumn, removed from soil, and dried. Description Rhizomes short and stout, sometimes with remains of a stem at the apex. Several roots, long cylindrical, slightly curved, some branched and with rootlets, 10-20 cm long, 0.3-1 cm in diameter. Externally brownish-red or dark brownish-red, rough, longitudinally wrinkled. The bark of old roots loose mostly purplish-brown, usually scaling off. Texture hard and fragile, fracture loose, cleft or slightly even and dense, with brownish-red bark and greyish-yellow or purpolish-brown wood, showing bundles of vessels, yellowish-white, arranged radially. Odour, slight; taste, slightly bitter and astringent. Cultivars relatively stout, 0.5-1.5 cm in diameter. Externally reddish-brown, longitudinally wrinkled, the bark closely adhering to wood and uneasy to be scaled off. Textur