Abstract: Salvia compositus is the water extract of a mixture of the Chinese medicinal herbs Salvia Miltiorrhiza and Delbergia Odorifera, which had been used for the treatment of coronary heart diseases including myocardial infarction. Usually the subjective complaim of patients suffering from infarction could be somehow relieved promptly after intravenous injection of Salvia compositus This paper presents the results of experiments concerned with the analysis of the possible mechanisms of this effect. Salvia compositus exhibited no obvious effect on the tension and the frequency of contraction of the heart in situ, the ischemic changes of the electrocardiogram elicited by the ligation of the anterior descending branch of the left coronary artery, the membrane and action potential of the myocardial cells and the oxygen consumption of the slices and homogenates of myocardial cells and brain tissues as well as the slices of the diaphragm. However, the drug showed marked effects on the electrical activities of the cerebral cortex, including depression of the spontaneous activities, increase of the threshold of the repetitive discharges elicited by direct cortical stimulation and enhancement of the sensory evoked cortical responses. Thus it seems that Salvia compositus exerts its prompt clinical curative effects via its depressant effect on the cerebral cortex.