Xue Jie (Dragon's Blood Resin)

Chinese Herb Actions

Chinese Herb Dosage

• What is the typical dosage of Xue Jie?

  Roughly 1–1.5 g, taken in pills or powder rather than decocted. Both of the standard references our record cites agree on this range: 1–1.5 g in pills or powders. It is a resin, so it does not dissolve usefully in a water decoction; the whole point of the small dose is that it is taken as the concentrated material itself.

  • Internal — 1–1.5 g in pills or powder (both reference sources agree).
  • Topical — applied as a powder to wounds, sores and ulcers; the amount is determined by the size of the lesion rather than by a fixed weight.

  Why the dose is not comparable to other blood-movers: a 1–1.5 g resin dose is not a “weak” dose. Comparing it against the 6–15 g decoction ranges typical of plant blood-movers is a category error — different preparation, different scale.

  Source: our own herb record (dosage as recorded from Bensky and Chen); published materia medica consensus. Reference only — not a prescription.

Chinese Herb Contraindications & Cautions

• Are there cautions for Xue Jie?

  Yes — it is contraindicated internally in pregnancy, and should not be used without a genuine blood-stasis pattern. Our record gives three cautions: do not take internally during pregnancy; do not use in the absence of blood-stasis signs; and do not take during menstruation. As a blood-breaking agent it can increase bleeding where bleeding is already the presentation.

  • Pregnancy — not for internal use.
  • Menstruation — avoid internally during menses.
  • No stasis, no indication — blood-breakers are pattern-specific; using them without stasis signs is the classic misuse.
  • Allergy — allergic reactions are on record (see toxicity), including with topical use, which matters because topical use is common.
  • Botanical source & substitution — several unrelated plants are sold as “dragon’s blood” (see research). A product labelled only “dragon’s blood” does not tell you which resin is in the bottle, and one of the source trees is a threatened island endemic. Ask for the botanical source.

  Source: our own herb record (pregnancy, menses, stasis-pattern cautions); published materia medica consensus; source-identification research cited below. Reference disclosures, not usage instructions.

Chinese Herb Toxicity & Overdose

• Low intrinsic toxicity; allergy is the documented concern. Our record notes reported allergic reactions including itching, skin wheals, eruptions, and angioneurotic edema of the hands and feet. These are hypersensitivity responses rather than dose-dependent poisoning, and they are relevant to topical as well as internal use.

  The other practical concern is not toxicity but identity: because the same trade name covers resins from several unrelated botanical families, an unlabelled product’s composition — and therefore its safety profile — cannot be assumed. Source-verified material matters here more than for most herbs.

  Source: our own herb record (reported allergic reactions); source-identification research below. Reference note, not a safety guarantee.

Herb-Drug Interactions

• No well-established clinical herb–drug interactions are documented. One precautionary flag: a 2025 bioactivity-guided fractionation study identified loureirin D from dragon’s blood phenolic extract as a P2Y12 receptor inhibitor with antiplatelet effects in laboratory models (PMID 41516159). P2Y12 is the target of standard antiplatelet drugs, so practitioner awareness is reasonable for patients on antiplatelet or anticoagulant therapy. This is a preclinical isolated-compound finding, not a demonstrated clinical interaction. (Precautionary; flagged for practitioner confirmation.)

Western / Biomedical Research

Chinese Herb Clinical Studies & Research

Provided as research context — a summary of published biomedical study, not a therapeutic or medical claim.

• What plant does dragon’s blood actually come from?

  “Dragon’s blood” is a colour, not a species — it is a trade name for deep-red plant resins produced by at least four entirely different plant families, and the pharmacopoeial source is only one of them. A published analytical study states plainly that dragon’s blood “can be produced from at least four entirely different plant families” and that current pharmacopoeia treats the rattan palm Daemonorops draco as the only authentic source (PMID 31313432). Our record’s pharmaceutical Latin, Sanguis Draconis, is that trade name in Latin and does not by itself specify a species.

  • Daemonorops draco (Arecaceae, a rattan palm of Southeast Asia) — the pharmacopoeially recognised source of Chinese Xue Jie. Its marker compound is dracorhodin.
  • Dracaena cochinchinensis and D. cambodiana (Asparagaceae, dragon trees of southern China and Southeast Asia) — the source of what the literature calls “Chinese dragon’s blood.” Their markers are the loureirins. A chromosome-level genome paper for D. cochinchinensis records both species as rated vulnerable (PMID 36196059; PMC 9700203).
  • Dracaena cinnabari — the Socotra dragon tree, endemic to the Socotra Archipelago (a UNESCO World Heritage site) and described in the literature as threatened in its conservation status (PMID 36202844; PMID 33794944). Its resin is a genuine article of commerce and appears in the analytical comparisons.
  • Croton lechleri (Euphorbiaceae, South America) — sold as “sangre de drago,” a separate tradition with its own literature; not Chinese Xue Jie.

  Discrepancy note: our record holds the trade Latin Sanguis Draconis without a botanical binomial, which is faithful to how the material is traded but does not commit to a source species. Sources that assert a single species for Xue Jie are describing pharmacopoeial intent, not necessarily what is in a given commercial sample. We have left the identity field unchanged and flag it here for owner decision.

  Is dragon’s blood adulterated or substituted?

  Source substitution is documented well enough that analytical methods exist specifically to detect it. Researchers developed a MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry screen to distinguish commercial dragon’s blood from Daemonorops draco, Dracaena cinnabari and Dracaena cochinchinensis by their marker compounds, explicitly to screen the plant source of commercial products (PMID 31313432). A metabolomics study of 51 batches of Chinese dragon’s blood found species and geographical origin both changed the chemistry, with the larger variation between species, and proposed phenolic quality markers to tell them apart (PMID 39359632; PMC 11445005). Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry has separated four different source species in historical artworks (PMID 20349349). We do not repeat the widely circulated claims about dyes or rosin adulteration — we could not verify them against a resolvable source, so they are omitted.

  Is there modern research on Xue Jie (Sanguis Draconis)?

  Yes — a substantial preclinical literature on the resin’s flavonoid chemistry, but no established clinical evidence. All of the following is laboratory or animal work and none of it supports a medical claim.

  • Wound healing and tissue — compounds isolated from Daemonorops draco showed anti-inflammatory, pro-proliferative and antimicrobial activity in cell models (PMID 33301918), which is the mechanistic direction one would expect from the traditional wound-surface use. Sanguis draconis resin also stimulated alkaline phosphatase activity and mineralisation in an osteoblast cell line (PMID 22543168), and a flavan trimer from the resin inhibited osteoclastogenesis (PMID 38008129).
  • Vascular / platelet — the resin reduced high-glucose-induced oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (PMID 24987732); loureirin D was identified as a P2Y12 inhibitor with antiplatelet effects (PMID 41516159).
  • Chemistry — the resin is dominated by flavans and related phenolics; new flavans continue to be described (PMID 25601087), and their structures have been confirmed by biomimetic synthesis (PMID 28736831).

  There is no human clinical trial evidence establishing efficacy for any of these uses. Treat the research as chemistry and mechanism, not as proof.

  Sources: PMID 31313432, DOI 10.1002/pca.2852 (MALDI-TOF source identification; “at least four entirely different plant families”); PMID 39359632, PMC 11445005, DOI 10.3389/fpls.2024.1427731 (metabolomics of Chinese dragon’s blood species and origins); PMID 36196059, PMC 9700203, DOI 10.1016/j.xplc.2022.100456 (D. cochinchinensis genome; vulnerable rating); PMID 36202844, PMC 9537188, DOI 10.1038/s41598-022-20304-6 (threatened dragon trees, chloroplast genomes); PMID 33794944, DOI 10.1186/s13002-021-00452-1 (D. cinnabari on Socotra); PMID 20349349 (GC/MS differentiation of four sources); PMID 33301918, PMID 22543168, PMID 38008129, PMID 24987732, PMID 41516159, PMID 25601087, PMID 28736831 (preclinical chemistry and pharmacology). Research context, not a therapeutic claim.

Chinese Herb Notes

• Which formulas contain Xue Jie?

  In our own formula records Xue Jie appears in two trauma formulas: Qi Li San (Seven Thousandths of a Tael Powder) and Die Da Wan (Trauma Pill). Both are external-injury formulas, which fits the herb exactly — it is chosen where there is blunt trauma with stasis, swelling and pain, and often where the skin is broken as well.

  How is Xue Jie different from Ru Xiang and Mo Yao?

  All three are resins used for traumatic pain, but they divide by what they do after the pain is addressed.

  • Ru Xiang (frankincense) — invigorates blood and relaxes the sinews; the choice when stiffness and restricted movement dominate.
  • Mo Yao (myrrh) — breaks blood stasis more directly; classically paired with Ru Xiang so that one relaxes and the other breaks.
  • Xue Jie — alone among the three, it also stops bleeding and generates flesh. It is the resin for an injury that is both stagnant and open.

  Compared with San Qi (notoginseng), which likewise both stops bleeding and moves blood: San Qi is the internal, systemic choice and is used in far larger doses, while Xue Jie is characteristically the topical wound-surface agent.

  Source: our own formula records (Qi Li San, Die Da Wan) and our own herb records for Ru Xiang, Mo Yao and San Qi; published materia medica consensus for the differentiation. Traditional formula context, not treatment advice.