The Rainforest Panacea

The ‘croton’ known for its curative powers and history of traditional use as a wound healer and identified by the New York Botanic Gardens as Croton lechleri of the Euphorbiaceae family, is a large tree that grows in the upper Amazon region of Peru, Equador and Columbia. It has plate-sized, lime-green, heart-shaped leaves, white flowers and a smooth bark, somewhat mottled by greyish blemishes. In light gaps, it grows easily like a weed. When the bark is cut, the sap first runs clear then transforms to a blood red latex which apparently smells like pork barbecue.

In the early 1600s, the Spanish naturalist and explorer P. Bernabe Cobo, first recorded references to its use by the indigenous people of Mexico. Their name for it was ‘espua huilt’ meaning ‘the tree that makes blood’. According to Richard Gill, an American explorer living in Equador in the 1930s, the sap was probably the ‘languiki’, (bloody water) of his Pacayacu region and the ‘yaguarhuiki’ (bloody gum or paste) of the Quichua of the Napo region in Equador.

The sap is simply painted on wounds to stop bleeding and accelerate healing. It forms a second skin protecting the wound from infection but also accelerating the healing process in a dramatic manner. A veritable cure-all, it also appears to kill fungal infections and viruses, is used to treat skin disorders, insect bites and stings, diarrhoea, internal stomach ulcers, and even to kill cancer and inhibit tumor growth. Whilst it is understood that the resin works best as a whole, scientists believe that the main active constituents are an alkaloid named taspine, a lignan called dimethylcedrusine, and the proanthocyanadin, Pycnogenol. The resin is usually applied to the affected area twice daily or if taken internally as 10 – 15 drops mixed with a little liquid.

‘Dragon’s Blood’ is bottled by an Equadorean company called Renase (‘Remedios Naturales Selvaticos’ translated as ‘Natural Forest Remedies’).