The profiling of bioactive ingredients of differently aged Salvia miltiorrhiza roots.

The roots of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge., named Danshen in traditional Chinese medicine, is widely used for the treatment of cardiovascular disorders, also for food auxiliary agent. Rosmarinic acid, salvianolic acid B, dihydrotanshinone, cryptotanshinone, and tanshinone IIA are all responsible for the pharmacological activity of Danshen, they are important quality evaluation index for Danshen. The quality evaluation of Danshen is mainly concentrated in difference of cultivated regions and years, but the difference in root systems themselves and the cause of the difference were overlook. The growth rings were employed to identified the roots ages in root systems. Then the contents of eight bioactive component in different aged, diameter and tissue of individual roots of the same root system were evaluated using HPLC coupled with an ultraviolet photodiode array detector. The root system of S. miltiorrhiza was a complex root systems composed by different aged and diameter roots, in which the contents of bioactive compounds vary greatly from the other. The lipophilic diterpenoid quinones mainly distributed in the bark and increased with the cultivated years. The hydrophilic depsides distributed in all tissues, and the contents are relatively high in xylem in 1-year-old roots. It was very important to identify the individual root age of S. miltiorrhiza root system cultivated for several years. In the same root system of S. miltiorrhiza roots with 0.4-cm diameter contain more bioactive compounds, which maybe cause by the uneven distribution of bioactive compounds.