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Folium Salviae
ments. The content of mineral matter not more than 0.5% (2); not more
than 3% of foreign matter (29).
Chemical assays
Contains not less than 1.5% (v/w) of essential oil for the whole drug and
not less than 1.0% (v/w) of essential oil for the cut drug (1). Not less than
0.8% of essential oil (2). High-performance liquid chromatography
method for determination of the thujone content (36). Hexane extract is
coloured red by sodium hydroxide (thujone) (37).
Major chemical constituents
Dried leaves contain 1–3.5% essential oil (fresh leaves contain about
3 times less), mostly monoterpenoids of which 18–60% are α-thujone,
3–21% β-thujone, 4.5–24.5% camphor (both (R)-(+)-camphor and (S)
(–)-camphor may be found), 5.5–13% cineole, 0–12% humulene, 1–6.5%
α-pinene, 1.5–7% camphene, 0.5–3% limonene, up to 1% linalool, and
up to 2.5% bornyl acetate. Sesquiterpenoids such as veridiflorol (11%)
and humulene (0–12%), a diterpenoid, manool (9%), and a linear aliphatic
alcohol 1-octen-3-ol (8.5%) are present among the main constituents of
the essential oil. Sage leaves of Dalmatian origin consist mainly of
α-thujone and β-thujone (share 20–60%), 1,8-cineole (6–16%) and camphor
(14–37%) (3, 5, 7, 23, 27, 36, 38, 39, 40). Also, apianane terpenoids,
3–8% condensed catechin-type tannins (salviatannin); phenolic acids
(rosmarinic, chlorogenic, ferulic and gallic acids; caffeic acid monomers,
dimers, trimers and tetramers); 1–3% flavonoids (apigenin and luteolin
7-O-glucosides, genkwanin, genkwanin-6-methyl ether, 5-methoxysalvigenin,
hispidulin); diterpenes (carnosol, carnosic acid, rosmanol, safficinolide);
triterpenes (oleanolic acid, ursolic acid, α-amyrin, β-amyrin (about
5%)); and resin are present (3, 5, 7, 23, 38, 39, 41–51). The structures of
the characteristic constituents are presented below.
Medicinal uses
Uses supported by clinical data
The management of mild to moderate Alzheimer disease (52).
Uses described in pharmacopoeias and well established documents
Salvia officinalis is used internally for treatment of influenza, bronchitis,
sinusitis, meningitis and neuritis (53). The European Scientific Cooperative
on Phytotherapy supports the use of S. officinalis leaves for stomatitis
and gingivitis (27). The German Standard Licence for S. officinalis infu-
347