| Summary: | <i>Salvia miltiorrhiza</i> Bunge (danshen) is a traditional herbal medicine and has been widely used to prevent and treat cardiovascular and other diseases. Currently, the majority of medicinal plants, including danshen, used in the United States are imported from foreign countries, which often involves challenges such as inconsistency in contents of bioactive compounds and inadequate supply of high quality plant materials to meet market demand. The objective of this study was to evaluate plant growth and the contents of major bioactive compounds of three selected danshen cultivars and identify cultivars with the greatest potential for commercial production in Mississippi. Results showed that danshen plants can grow well in Mississippi and the three cultivars evaluated had similar growth indices, leaf SPAD values, photosynthetic activities, shoot and root dry weights, and root numbers, but differed in germination rates, maximum root lengths, and maximum root diameters. The major bioactive compounds in danshen root extracts, including tanshinone I, tanshinone IIA, cryptotanshinone, and salvianolic acid B, were quantified with no significant difference in their contents among the three cultivars. Results from this study suggested that danshen has the potential to be grown as an alternative crop in Mississippi, USA.
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