Ricerc@Sapienza

In many Countries Salvia plant is used as common spice and added to
food for a traditional longstanding culinary utilization. Many species of the
genus Salvia are also widely used in folk medicine. Salvia plants are
considered useful for numerous biological activities such as antioxidant,
antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, anticancer and for prevention of
atherosclerotic plaque formation and blood circulation-improvement
activity. In recent time attention was also focused on the possible use of
salvia as anti-aging and neurodegenerative diseases counteracting agent. In
the continuous searching for compounds potentially useful for the
development of pharmaceuticals, the use of plants as pharmaceuticals has moved from an empirical-traditional knowledge and applications to more
precise scientific uses. In this view in recent time species of salvia genus
have been deeply investigated to identify compounds possibly responsible
of the biological and pharmacological properties well established during
time. In the present chapter an overview of recent findings on salvia
compounds and their biological properties will be reported.