Salvia divinorum and Salvia miltiorrhiza are two different kinds of Chinese medicinal herbs, the differences include flavor, function and main treatment.
1. Sexual flavor: Salvia miltiorrhiza is bitter in taste and slightly cold in nature; it belongs to the heart, pericardium and liver meridians. Radix Salvia miltiorrhiza has a sweet, slightly bitter flavor and is slightly cold in nature; it belongs to the lung and stomach meridians.
2. Functions: Salvia miltiorrhiza has the functions of activating blood circulation and regulating menstruation, removing blood stasis and relieving pain, cooling blood and eliminating carbuncle (eliminating carbuncle by cooling blood), and removing vexation and tranquilizing the mind. Radix Salvia miltiorrhiza has the effects of nourishing yin and clearing heat, moistening the lungs and resolving phlegm, benefiting the stomach and generating fluids.
3. Indications: Salvia miltiorrhiza is used for treating irregular menstruation, amenorrhea and dysmenorrhea, postpartum stagnation and abdominal pain, blood stasis and heart pain, and obstruction in the abdomen (tangible or intangible lumps appearing in the abdomen with a feeling of distension and pain). Radix Salvia miltiorrhiza is used for treating prolonged cough due to yin deficiency, dry cough with little phlegm, paralysis of throat due to deficiency heat (redness, swelling and pain in the pharynx, or dryness, with a feeling of foreign body, or itchy and discomfort in the pharynx, with difficulty in swallowing), and thirst due to injury of the fluids.
Salvia miltiorrhiza should not be used with veratrum. Salvia miltiorrhiza is contraindicated in wind-cold cough.
Medical supervision is required for taking the above medicines.