Dragon’s Blood, also known as Sangre de Grado, comes from a medium size tree that grows in the upper Amazon region of Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. When the trunk of the tree is cut, a dark red, sappy resin oozes out of the trunk, earning its name. The resin is extracted from the tree bark by creating a deep, diagonal cut along the trunk, causing the resin to “bleed” from the tree for collection. Dragon’s Blood is an amazing sustainable rainforest resource. Internally it has been known to support a healthy intestine.*
Dragon’s Blood resin or sap is a storehouse of phytochemicals including proanthocyanidins, simple phenols, diterpenes, phytosterols, and biologically active alkaloids and lignans. Scientists have attributed many of the biologically active properties of the sap to two main “active” constituents: an alkaloid named taspine, and a lignan named dimethylcedrusine.
