Salidroside is a prolyl endopeptidase inhibitor, which has cardioprotective, antidiabetic,antidepressant, anxiolytic, anti-tumor, and antioxidant actions. Salidroside alleviates cachexia symptoms in mouse models of cancer cachexia via activating mTOR signalling. It alleviates the pulmonary symptoms of paraquat-induced acute lung injury, at least partially, by repressing inflammatory cell infiltration and the expression of TGF-β1 resulting in delayed lung fibrosis; and it has protective effect against hypoxia-induced cardiomyocytes necrosis and apoptosis by increasing HIF-1α expression and subsequently up-regulating VEGF levels. It may be a potential therapeutic agent for treating or preventing neurodegenerative diseases implicated with oxidative stress.