dragon's blood croton

Other common names: Sangre de drago
Latin name: Croton lechleri Müll. Arg. [Euphorbiaceae]
Plant part: Sap

Sangre de drago, meaning dragon’s blood, is a common name for
closely related species of Croton growing in South America. The
English term, dragon’s blood, is a common name used to describe different
genera from Malaya, the Canary Islands, Guyana in the West
Indies, and South America. Dragon’s blood croton, or C. lechleri, is a
South American tree whose blood-red latex or sap is a traditional
remedy. It is used internally for coughs, flu, “lung problems,” diarrhea,
and stomach ulcers, and externally for wound healing. The major
constituents of the sap are proanthocyanidins, which are also
called condensed tannins. The sap also contains taspine (a phenanthrene
alkaloid) as well as lignans (Jones, in press; Ubillas et al.,
1994).

Diarrhea in AIDS Patients

A well-conducted, placebo-controlled, double-blind study included
45 AIDS patients (HIV-1 infection) with chronic diarrhea. After four
days of administration of two (250 mg) capsules every six hours,
there was a significant reduction in stool weight and stool frequency
compared to placebo (Holodniy et al., 1999).
A subsequent study with 393 AIDS patients with diarrhea compared
250 mg delayed-release tablets, 500 mg delayed-release tablets,
and 500 mg delayed-release beads to placebo. The final dose levels
were 500 mg or 1000 mg four times daily. A significant reduction
in stool weight was observed for the group given 500 mg delayedrelease
tablets (a total of 4 g per day) compared with placebo. There
was also a significant reduction compared to baseline measurements.
No other treatment group showed significant changes (Koch, 2000).
Unfortunately, this study was not written up in full, and many details
of the study methodology were not included in the report we reviewed.


No serious adverse effects or laboratory abnormalities were observed
in either study cited.