Content of rare earth elements in Salvia miltiorrhiza bunge from different areas

Salvia miltiorrhiza bunge (SMB) has been widely used as a traditional Chinese medicine for a long time, and today more and more attention has been paid to the effective components in Chinese traditional medicine, especially to rare earth elements (REEs). 14 kinds of REEs in SMB from different areas were analyzed by the methods of ICP-MS. The results showed that the total concentration of REEs (as REO, the same below) ranged from 8.43 (as dry weight, the same below) to 37.30 mg/kg, and the concentrations of La, Ce and Nd were higher than 2 mg/kg except Nd in SMB from Beijing. So the total concentration of REEs in SMB was much higher than that in rice, corn and barley, which could be the mechanism of curative effect of SMB on cardiovascular cerebrovascular system, digestive system, respiratory system, countershock and antibiotic. The character of other elements and the content of REEs in soil from different areas should be responsible for the difference, but the allocation mechanism of REEs in SMB should be further studied.