A New Red Pigment from Chinese Dragon's Blood, the Red Resin of Dracaena cochinchinensis

摘要

Dragon's blood is a non-specific name for deep red resinous exudations from plants. It has been used as a famous medicinal herb, but also as a colourant in works of art since ancient times by many cultures. The deep resin is from quite different plant taxa endemic to various regions around the globe, i.e. Dracaena (Agavaceae) originally in Middle-east Asia and North Africa, Daemonorops (Palmae) from Southeast Asian, Malaysia and Indonesia, Croton (Euphor-biaceae) in south American Amazon valley region, and Pterocarpus (Leguminosa) in India. In China, the red resin from Dracaena was firstly imported through the silk road in Sui and Tang dynasties and used widely as an important traditional Chinese medicinal herb.3,4 Until 1970s, the red resin of D. cochinchinensis S. C. Chen used originally by the Dai people living in the south part of Yunnan province, China, for treating hurt and stopping blood, has been found and used to be the substitute of the traditionally imported dragon's blood, called Long-Xue-Jie (Chinese dragon's blood).