Reassignment of the configuration of salvianolic acid B and establishment of its identity with lithospermic acid B

Abstract

Salvianolic acid B and lithospermic acid B are the major components of Salvia miltiorrhiza, which is one of the most popular herbal traditional medicines in Asian countries. Salvianolic acid B and lithospermic acid B are reported to have identical structures except for the configurational assignments of two stereocenters. Through chemical correlation between a degradation product of salvianolic acid B and synthetic material, the absolute configuration of Salvianolic acid B has been corrected to establish that Salvianolic acid B and lithospermic acid B are in fact the same compound. © 2006 American Chemical Society and American Society of Pharmacognosy.