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Sanguis Draconis, c1745-1807

© 2021 Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Description

Glass jar containing a specimen of Sanguis Draconis or Dragon’s Blood, the resin from the fruit of Daemonorops propinquus. From the Burges Collection.

Text on paper labels reads ‘Catal. Mat. Med. p. 29, no. 94’ and ‘SANG. DRACON.

The fruit is covered with scales from between which a red resin exudes and covers the fruit.

Greenish describes its preparation and the form in which it was imported in 1920..’ Pomet says of Indian dragon’s blood that ‘It is good to stop all Sorts of Fluxes of the Bowels or Womb, the Bloody-Flux, Whites, and Gonorrhoea, being inwardly given, from half a Dram to a Dram, mix’d with Conserve of red Roses, or some other proper Vehicle. It is good against Spitting of Blood, and stops Catarrhs, being of a drying, binding, and repelling Property.’