Dragon’s Blood

Dragon’s Blood

　　Imported dragon’s blood is processed from the resin of the fruit of the palm tree Daemonorops draco and other plants in the same genus. Domestic dragon’s blood is made from the resin of the dragon blood trees Dracaena cochinchinensis and Dracaena cambodiana, which are evergreen trees in the Asparagaceae family. It is named “dragon’s blood” because of its color, which resembles dried coagulated blood. The original plant of domestic dragon’s blood can grow to a height of 10–20 meters, with a diameter that can reach 140 centimeters. The injured parts of the trunk have purple-red wood tissue; the leaves are sessile, arrow-shaped, leathery and thin; it has terminal conical inflorescences and spherical berries. Its flowering and fruiting period is from February to August. It is a light-demanding species, distributed in sunny areas of limestone mountainous regions south of 23°N latitude. Depending on the processing method, the product comes in various shapes, but its powder is always purple-red. The efficacy of domestic dragon’s blood is entirely consistent with that of imported Daemonorops draco, having functions such as promoting blood circulation, stopping bleeding, relieving pain, and promoting tissue regeneration. It can be used to treat various types of hemorrhage. The "Compendium of Materia Medica" describes it as "dispelling blood pain and being a holy medicine for promoting blood circulation." Historically, China relied on imports, and it was one of the important “southern medicines.” In 1972, Cai Xitao, a botanist and then director of the Yunnan Tropical Plant Research Institute, first discovered Dracaena resources in Menglian County, Simao (now Pu’er), naming the species “Dracaena cambodiana (variety).” This tree species became the main raw material source for later domestic dragon’s blood production. The main producing areas are in Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia and Laos, while domestically, Yunnan’s Simao and Xishuangbanna are the primary regions, with some resources also found in Guangxi. During the 1985–1990 Traditional Chinese Medicine Resources Survey, large areas of pure Dracaena forests were discovered in counties such as Jinggu in Simao. To protect domestic resources, in recent years, large quantities of Dracaena raw materials have been imported from countries such as Laos for the production of dragon’s blood. Between 1982 and 1986, the Gejiu Pharmaceutical Factory in Yunnan successfully produced domestic dragon’s blood using Dracaena cambodiana for the first time, and the product was included in the “Yunnan Pharmaceutical Standards.” By 1990, Yunnan had developed six major manufacturers of domestic dragon’s blood, with production essentially meeting domestic demand.