Salvia Genus: Triterpenoids

Salvia L., is one of the largest genera from Lamiaceae (Labiatae) family which comprises 900 species and is widely distributed in various regions of the world like in America, Europe, Asia. The plants are typically 30-150 cm tall, herbaceous or suffruticose, and perennial, rarely biennial, or annual, with attractive flowers in various colors. Salvia, in Latin named ¿salvare¿, which means ¿to heal¿ so by name its medicinal importance was understand, since from ancient times different salvia species were used to cure more than sixty different ailments ranging from aches to epilepsy, and mainly to treat colds, bronchitis, tuberculosis, hemorrhage, and menstrual disorders. In this review article, the triterpenoid constituents were investigated from all of the Salvia plants to date are reported. About 214 triterpenoids of different classes were isolated and characterized from 113 species of salvia genus. However, during the isolation procedures of Salvia plant extracts, ursolic and oleanolic acid are common. This review is an effort to attract natural product chemist to give their contribution on isolation of triterpenoid¿s from Salvia genus.