He and Shen BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2014, 14:493

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleRadix Salviae miltiorrhizae (Danshen) is a plant belong-ing to the Labiatae Lagurus grass species. It is widely used in clinical practice for the prevention and treat-ment of vascular diseases [1-3] and can also exert pro-tective effects on the liver [4], kidneys [5-7] and lungs [8,9]. Furthermore, Danshen is an effective herb within for treating trauma wounds and fractures. Several stud-ies have shown that Danshen may play an important role in accelerating bone remodeling to promote fracture healing [10,11]. Danshen is the dried root of Salviae mil-tiorrhizae and can be divided more specifically into lipo-philic and hydrophilic fractions [12,13]. Salvianolic acid B (Sal B) is a water-soluble active component isolated from Danshen [12,14,15]. It is the main constituent o