Salvia triloba / Salvia fructicosa

It has a long tradition of use in Greece, where it is valued for its beauty, medicinal value, and culinary use, along with its sweet nectar and pollen. Salvia fruticosa was depicted in a Minoan fresco circa 1400 BCE at Knossos on the island of Crete.[2] The ancient Phoenicians and Greeks likely introduced the plant for cultivation to the Iberian peninsula, with remnant populations of these introduced plants still found in some coastal areas.[5] Greek sage accounts for 50–95% of the dried sage sold in North America,[6][7] and is grown commercially for its essential oil.[8] It also has a long tradition of use in various Muslim rituals—for newborn children, at weddings, in funerals, and burnt as incense.[9] A cross between S. fruticosa and Salvia officinalis developed in the middle east is called "silver leaf sage" or Salvia" Newe Ya'ar'", and is used in cooking.[10][11]

In its native habitat, it frequently develops woolly galls about 1 inch in diameter which are called 'apples'. These 'apples' are peeled and eaten when they are soft, and are described as being fragrant, juicy, and tasty.[2] The formation of galls was originally thought to be limited to Salvia pomifera,[12] which led to the misidentification of many gall-bearing Salvia fruticosa plants.[13] In 2001 it was discovered that the galls on Salvia fruticosa were caused by a previously undiscovered genus of Cynipid gall wasp.[14]

Clebsch, Betsy; Barner, Carol D. (2003). The New Book of Salvias. Timber Press. pp. 125–127. ISBN 978-0-88192-560-9.

"A number of taxa described from the E Mediterranean are nowadays considered as synonyms of Salvia fruticosa (Greuter & al. 1986). Their original descriptions suggest that they are characterized either by three lobed leaves (S. triloba L. fil.), or very small leaves (S. libanotica Boiss & Gaill.; S. cypria Kotschy; S. lobryana Aznav.)." Karousou, Regina; Stella Kokkini (September 1999). "Distribution and clinal variation of Salvia fruticosa Mill. (Labiatae)". Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 27 (6): 559–568. doi:10.1016/S0305-1978(98)00122-7.

Kintzios, pp. 35–36.

Kintzios, Spiridon E. (2000). Sage: The Genus Salvia. CRC Press. pp. 30–31. ISBN 978-90-5823-005-8.

Hanson, Beth (2004). Designing an Herb Garden. Brooklyn Botanic Garden. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-889538-63-1.

"Salvia fruticosa". Plants for a Future. Retrieved 2009-01-23.

Länger, R.; Mechtler, Ch.; Jurenitsch, J. (12-04-1998). "Composition of the Essential Oils of Commercial Samples of Salvia officinalis L. and S. fruticosa Miller: A Comparison of Oils Obtained by Extraction and Steam Distillation". Phytochemical Analysis 7 (6): 289–293. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-1565(199611)7:6<289::AID-PCA318>3.0.CO;2-7.

Dafni, Amots; Efraim Lev, Sabine Beckmann, Christian Eichberger (09-10-2006). "Ritual plants of Muslim graveyards in northern Israel". Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2 (38).doi:10.1186/1746-4269-2-38. PMC 1584233. PMID 16961931.

"Salvia officinalis x Salvia fruticosa". Promising Plants Profiles. The Herb Society of America. Retrieved 24 May 2013.

Joan Benjamin; Erin Hynes (1 May 1996). Great garden shortcuts: 100s of all-new tips and techniques that guarantee you'll save time, save money, save work. Rodale Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-87596-702-8. Retrieved 24 May 2013.

Salvia pomifera, "apple-bearing sage".

Tsekos, Ioannes; Michael Moustakas (1998). Progress in Botanical Research. Springer. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-7923-5305-8.

Zerova, Marina Dmitrievna; Ludmila Yakovlevna Seryogina, George Melika, Tomáš Pavlicek, Eviatar Nevo (2003). "New Genus and New Species of Cynipid Gall Inducing Wasp". Journal of the Entomological Research Society 5 (1): 35–49.

J Med Food. 2013 May;16(5):437-46. doi: 10.1089/jmf.2012.0165. Epub 2013 Apr 30.Possible therapeutic uses of Salvia triloba and Piper nigrum in Alzheimer's disease-induced rats.Ahmed HH1, Salem AM, Sabry GM, Husein AA, Kotob SE.

This study aimed to investigate the role of Salvia triloba L. and Piper nigrum extracts in ameliorating neuroinflammatory insults characteristic of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in an experimentally induced rat model. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were classified into Group 1 (n=10): normal healthy animals serving as the negative control group; Group 2 (n=60): the AD-induced group. After AD induction, animals in the AD-induced group were divided randomly and equally into 6 subgroups. The first subgroup served as AD control; the second one, which served as positive control, was treated orally with the conventional therapy for AD (rivastigmine) at a dose of 0.3 mg/kg body weight (b.w.) daily for 3 months. The third and fourth subgroups were, respectively, treated orally with the S. triloba extract at a dose of 750 and 375 mg/kg b.w. daily for 3 months. The fifth and sixth subgroups were, respectively, treated orally with the P. nigrum extract at a dose of 187.5 and 93.75 mg/kg b.w. daily for 3 months. Levels of brain acetylcholine (Ach), serum and brain acetylcholinesterase (AchE) activity, C-reactive protein (CRP), total nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB), and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) were estimated. The results showed that administration of AlCl3 resulted in a significant elevation in the levels of AchE activity, CRP, NF-κB, and MCP-1 accompanied with a significant depletion in the Ach level. Treatment of AD rats with each of the selected medicinal plant extracts caused marked improvement in the measured biochemical parameters. In conclusion, S. triloba and P. nigrum methanolic extracts have potent anti-inflammatory effects against neuroinflammation characterizing AD.

The antiangiogenic activities of ethanolic crude extracts of four Salvia species

Malek Zihlif1*, Fatma Afifi, Rana Abu-Dahab, Amin Malik Shah Abdul Majid*, Hamza Somrain, Mohanad M Saleh, Zeyad D Nassar3 and Randa Naffa BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2013, 13:358 doi:10.1186/1472-6882-13-358

Background

Angiogenesis is one of cancer hallmarks that are required for both cancer progression and metastasis. In this study we examined the antiangiogenic properties of the ethanolic crude extracts of four Salvia species grown in Jordan.

Methods

The direct antiangiogenic activity was evaluated using various models: ex vivo rat aortic ring assay, in vitro assessment of HUVEC proliferation and migration, and in vivo CAM assay, while we used the changes in the expression of HIF-1α and VEGF in breast cancer cells (MCF 7) as an indicative for the indirect antiangiogenic activity.

Results

All four crude extracts showed a potential antiangiogenic activity in the rat aortic assay, however two species were found to be cytotoxic against Fibroblast cell line (PLF); the finding that caused the exclusion of these two extracts from further studies. Of the two remaining extracts, S. triloba showed very promising direct and indirect antiangiogenic activities. S. triloba inhibited the HUVEC proliferation with an IC50 of 90 μg/mL and HUVEC migration by 82% at 150 μg/mL. Furthermore, the in vivo CAM assay also illustrated the high impact of S. triloba against the newly formed vessel in the chicken embryonic membrane. Interestingly, the S. triloba inhibited the expression of VEGF at the mRNA and protein and the HIF-1α mRNA in the MCF 7 breast cancer cells under both normoxic and hypoxic conditions.

Conclusions

Taken together, all these findings of the direct and indirect angiogenic investigations nominated S. triloba as a highly potent antiangiogenic plant that may have chemotherapeutic and/or chemoprevention potentials.