HISTORY and FACTS
Dragon’s Blood, originally named Qilin Jie in the Tang Dynasty Herbal Foundation Cannon (Tang Ben Cao 659AD), has a history of 1,500 years in clinical treatment. It’s origin began during a journey on the Silk Road from the Western Asian country of Persia. An ambassador traveled by camel to the ancient Chinese capital of Changan (now, in modern day Xian, Shanxi province). Carrying Qilin Jie and other valuable medicines, he respectfully presented them to the Tang dynasty emperor. He then proceeded to expound upon the origin of the magical medicine he held in his hands:
“Since antiquity, shepherds and hunters have made trips into the primeval forests and scaled steep mountainsides where injuries to people and livestock were common. One day in the mountains, a shepherd was taking his cattle into the mountains when the lead cow stepped into a hole and fell down a cliff. The shepherd noticed the cow licking the tree sap from the tree trunk it had just fallen on and broken, then applying the sap to its bleeding wound. Unexpectedly, the wound stopped bleeding. The cow then continued to eat the tree leaves. Within a short time, the cow miraculously turned over and stood up.
The shepherd crawled down into the valley to assist his cow; he also suffered from injuries on his hands and feet caused by the sharp rocks and brambles on the climb down. He applied the blood red tree sap to his injuries and immediately the wounds stopped bleeding and the pain ceased. The shepherd carried this coagulated, dried tree sap back to the village, and preached about its magical effectiveness. From then on, the people regarded the tree sap as a miracle bestowed by heaven.”
The Ming dynasty medical scholar Li Shizhen, one of the great pharmacologists of China, in his Herbal Foundation Compendium (Ben Cao Gang Mu), written in 1578 and published in 1593, renamed this herbal medicine, Long Xue Jie, what is now known as Dragon’s Blood. He later referred to Dragon’s Blood as the “quicken blood miracle elixir”. In this medical classic he ascribes to Dragon’s Blood the following functions; break accumulations of blood, alleviate pain, engender flesh, eliminate pathogenic qi of the 5 viscera, supplement vacuity, boost yang essence, disperse various malign sores and scab sores, and dissipate static blood pain.
The Dragon Blood tree is called, “the botanical symbol of longevity” in China. In 1968, Feng Daode, the widely known geography scholar went to the African island of Madagascar. During his research of the island, he discovered a tree that had its trunk broken in a storm. Its height was 18 meters (49.4’) and almost 5 meters (13.7’) in diameter. Counting the age rings of the trunk revealed the tree’s incredible age of at least 8,000 years. In the botanical world, it is one of the oldest trees. This tree was blown down in 1861 by a tropical storm.
Prior to 1972, China was completely dependent on imported Dragon’s Blood; therefore, it was expensive and primarily used in the manufacture of patent herbal medicines. In 1972, Cai Xiyao, a famous Chinese botanist discovered the precious Dragon’s Blood trees in a thick rainforest in the Xishuanbanna prefecture of Southern Yunnan province. These trees provided the raw material for the development of Dragon’s Blood in China.
Found in the tropics, this evergreen arbor has an average height of 10-20 meters and a strong, large diameter trunk, which is usually Y-shaped. It has many branches and long sword-like leaves. The leaves are distributed densely on the top of the tree forming a canopy. It blooms white flowers and bears yellow fruit. A new tree blooms every several decades, and several hundred years to reach maturity; therefore, it is very rare. The tree’s sap is dark red. When dried, it resembles dried, coagulated blood, hence the name, Dragon’s Blood. The resin is harvested from the bark of wild trees in Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, and Xishuangbanna (Yunnan province, China) and has extremely low levels of impurities (see Certificates of Analysis). Insects living in the bark damage the cortex and cause the tree to “bleed” resin. Eventually the bark sloughs off and is collected for extraction of the resin. Pesticides are not used as this would kill the insects living in the bark and interfere with the collection process. The resin is extracted with the use of ethyl alcohol under completely contained conditions in a clean room environment.
In China, Yunnan Baiyao, or “Yunnan province white medicine” has long been renowned for it’s effectiveness in the treatment of pain, swelling, and bleeding of traumatic injury. It’s formula is a trade secret, however most know that Notoginseng (san qi) is it’s chief medicinal. It also has quicken blood, transform stasis, staunch bleeding, and stabilize pain functions. Unbeknownst to many, Dragon’s Blood is also known as Yunnan Hongyao, or “Yunnan province red medicine”.