Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in American men, with one in every five patients developing invasive cancer.The search for effective regimens with minimal adverse effects for the treatment of prostate cancer remains the top priority of prostate cancer research.A Chinese herb Danshen has been widely adopted in the traditional Chinese medicinal preparations, and its products have been effectively used in Asia and Europe for the treatment of cerebrovascular disorders with minimal adverse effects.Danshen contains a diverse array of ingredients.Our studies showed that its active ingredients, tanshinone ⅡA (T2A) and cryptotanshinone (CT) significantly inhibited the growth of prostate cancer cells in part via induction of apoptosis and inhibited angiogenesis in vitro, but not the normal prostate epithelial cells.The combination of T2A and CT further enhanced their antigrowth activity in a synergistic manner in part by synergistically inducing prostate cancer cell apoptosis.These results suggested that appropriate preparations of Danshen to include synergistic active components might provide effective preventive and/or therapeutic regimens against prostate cancer.We then applied cellular activity-guided fractionation and preparation strategies to identify the candidate active fractions of Danshen.Future preclinical verification of efficacy of the candidate regimens in clinically relevant prostate cancer animal models will provide convincing evidence for translating our findings into clinical intervention trials.Our research strategy will also provide a model to investigate the effects of Chinese herbal medicines on the prevention and/or treatment of cancer and other diseases.