Danshen is the dry roots and rhizomes of perennial herbs of Labiatae plants of Salvia miltiorrhiza Beg. It had been found that Danshen had showed better effects for the prevention and treatment of cholestatic liver damage,immune liver damage,liver fibrosis,liver cancer and drug-induced liver injury in clinical and pharmacological studies.It was reviewed in this article that the applications and mechanism studies of Danshen for the prevention and treatment of liver disease, which will be helpful for the developing of liver-protecting drugs from Danshen and providing guidelines for clinical rational drug use.