KUNMING, China—Dragon's blood is a traditional medicine that been used worldwide for wound healing , eczema and more; but little is known about its formation mechanism. Therefore, Chinese researchers aimed to gain some insights into its formation mechanism and to control its production (Plant Sci. 2011 Feb;180(2):292-9). The results demonstrated wounding plus causal fungal infection and keeping the wound moist are essential for efficient dragon's blood formation in Dracaena cochinchinensis. Two fungal isolates YM-266 and YM-71213 of Fusarium proliferatum increased the yield of dragon's blood in D. cochinchinensis trees by 2.7- and 3.3-times compared to that of the control (wounding alone and keeping the wound moist), respectively. The fungal induced dragon's blood had almost identical chemical constituents to natural dragon's blood with a higher loureirins a and b content.
In addition, the induced dragon's blood had similar antimicrobial activity, and similar or higher antioxidant activity than natural dragon's blood. The novel biological technology developed in this study for the production of dragon's blood was safe, repeatable, practical and feasible for the farmers, enabling the production of dragon's blood in a sustainable way without destroying the endangered trees and environment.