Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a common human neurodegenerative disease, which is characterized by the progressive loss of memory and the cognitive impairment. Since the etiology of AD is still unknown, it is extremely difcult to develop the efective drugs for preventing or slowing the AD process. The major characteristics of AD such as amyloid β plaques, neurofbrillary tangles, mitochondrial dysfunction, and autophagy dysfunction are commonly used as the important indicators for evaluating the efects of potential candidate drugs. The rhizome of Salvia miltiorrhiza (known as ‘Danshen’ in Chinese), a famous traditional Chinese medicine, which is widely used for the treatment of hyperlipidemia, stroke, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Increasing evidences suggest that the bioactive components of Danshen can improve cognitive defcits in mice, protect neuronal cells, reduce tau hyperphosylation, prevent amyloid-β fber formation and disaggregation. Here we briefy summarize the studies regarding the efects of bioactive component from Danshen on those major characteristics of AD in preclinical studies, as well as explore the potential of these Danshen component in the treatment of AD.