Dragon's Blood Tree

The dragon’s blood tree has a thick red resin that makes the plant appear to be bleeding when it is cut. These subtropical plants form huge umbrella-like canopies and can grow for hundreds of years.

Uses
Dragon's blood is used as a stimulant and abortifacient. The root yields a gum-resin, used in gargle water as a stimulant, astringent and in toothpaste. The root is used in rheumatism, the leaves are a carminative.

The trees can be harvested for their crimson red resin, called dragon's blood which was highly prized in the ancient world and is still used today. Because of the belief that it is the blood of the dragon it is also used in ritual magic and alchemy. In 1883, the Scottish botanist Isaac Bayley Balfour identified three grades of resin; the most valuable were tear-like in appearance, then a mixture of small chips and fragments, with a mixture of fragments and debris being the cheapest. The resin of the Dragon's Blood Tree is thought to have been the original source of dragons blood until during the mediaeval and renaissance periods when other plants were used instead.