The low molecular weight fraction of an aqueous extract of the Chinese herb Angelica sinensis (Dang Gui) is dose-dependently protective during lethal experimental sepsis and endotoxemia (37) . Ninety percent of mice were saved during lethal endotoxemia (when only 30% of controls survived) when the extract was given daily, and 70% of mice were saved during lethal sepsis (when only 25% of controls survived) when the extract was given daily. What is most impressive is that in the sepsis model, the repeated administration of the extract was not begun until 24 h after the onset of sepsis, when some animals had already died. The authors also showed that this late administration significantly reduced serum levels of HMGB1, and attributed the rescue of mice in part to the attenuation of systemic HMGB1 accumulation by the herbal extract. This effect on HMGB1 is important as HMGB1 is the only high mobility group protein with an additional extracellular function, a cytokine-like activity (38, 39) . It is this function that many researchers have become interested in since the first demonstration in 1999 of the presence of high levels of HMGB1 in the serum of mice and human patients with sepsis (35) . What is most unusual about HMGB1 is that its secretion continues for an uncommonly long time, with peak levels detected in cell cultures 18 h after stimulation (35) . This is in contrast to TNF secretion, for example, which peaks 90 min after the initial stimulus. In turn, once released into the circulation HMGB1 generates a further wave of inflammatory cytokine production (40) through its receptors, the receptor for advanced glycation endproducts [RAGE; (41, 42) ], and toll-like receptors 2 and 4 (43) . This ability to amplify and prolong inflammation is consistent with observations in sepsis where both HMGB1 and other inflammatory cytokines are persistently elevated (44, 45) .