 This plant, danshen, or red sage, is a mainstay in Chinese herbal medicine. Traditionalists believe the roots of salvia miltyorhiza can treat a range of health problems, from chest pain and strokes, to diabetes and liver disease. While those claims have yet to be backed by clinical trials, studies have suggested that an antioxidant in red sage root, salvionolic acid F, may help protect the cardiovascular system. Even more valuable properties might be discovered if chemists could tinker with the basic structure, but the molecule is hard to synthesize. Now, a group from India has devised a simpler way to make a variety of analog compounds, several of which can kill brain cancer cells in culture. The researchers began by trying to find an easier way to synthesize an analog of salvionolic acid F, known to inhibit a phosphatase involved in promoting glioma, a type of brain cancer. The current protocol for synthesis includes seven tedious steps, in part to protect certain sections of the molecule during some reactions. To reduce the number of steps, the team used sequential Perkin-Heck reactions in one pot. This produced yields of 40 to 65% for seven analogs in as few as two steps. When the team tested each of these molecules for anti-cancer activity, they found that number three successfully killed rat glioma cells in culture. Replacing the methyl group with an ethyl group resulted in another molecule with the ability to kill. Several other slight modifications to this part of the molecule produced more compounds with the same capability. How might these molecules be fighting cancer? The team thinks that when the compounds enter cells, they get broken down, likely by esterases, and create reactive thiol structures that trigger apoptosis. Molecule 8 was the most selective, primarily killing cancer cells and leaving normal gliol cells alone. Further investigation revealed that this compound damages DNA and triggers cell death by activating Caspase 6. The researchers caution that it's still too early to know if any of these molecules will be useful in fighting glioma in patients. But the development of the chemical reactions for synthesis, simplified and in one pot, offers new opportunities to test more compounds to find effective chemotherapies.