Exploring Redox–Inflammation Interactions: Tanshinones from Salvia miltiorrhiza as Potential Modulators of Intestinal Health in Livestock

Tanshinones from Salvia miltiorrhiza have been studied in biomedical systems, and a growing intestinal literature includes porcine epithelial-cell models and experimental colitis. This integrative narrative review summarizes intestinal findings separately from evidence in non-livestock models and from mechanistic extrapolation. Direct food-animal evidence for purified tanshinones as dietary additives remains limited; studies of whole-plant preparations and sodium tanshinone IIA sulfonate are not equivalent to feed trials of native tanshinones. Reported effects involve redox and inflammatory signaling, epithelial barrier-related measures, and intestinal injury models but do not establish species-specific efficacy, dose response, safety, or performance benefits. Microbiota–metabolite–immune relationships provide a rationale for future testing, not evidence that tanshinones improve livestock microbiota or production. Key translational gaps include dose escalation, pharmacokinetics, feed-processing stability, species-specific toxicology, residues, withdrawal periods, and interactions. The available evidence supports testable research questions rather than a validated feed-additive recommendation.