Dragon's Blood Chunks (Daemonorops draco; Xue Jie) 1 lb: C

This is Starwest's nitrogen-flushed double wall silverfoil pack. Daemonorops draco, a rattan palm native to Malaysia and Indonesia, produces much of the dragon's blood of commerce. Formerly valued as a medicine in Europe because of its astringent properties, dragon's blood is also used as a varnish for violins and in photoengraving. Grieve's classic 'A Modern Herbal': 'It is used as a colouring matter for varnishes, tooth-pastes, tinctures, plasters, for dyeing horn to imitate tortoiseshell, etc. It is very brittle, and breaks with an irregular, resinous fracture, is bright red and glossy inside, and darker red sometimes powdered with crimson, externally. Small, thin pieces are transparent.' 'Doses of 10 to 30 grains were formerly given as an astringent in diarrhoea, etc., but officially it is never at present used internally, being regarded as inert.' King's 1898 Dispensatory: 'Dragon's blood is a dark-red substance, which is imported from the East Indies, and which is procured from the berries of the Calamus Draco, by rubbing or agitating them in a bag, softening by heat the resinous exudation obtained, and making this up into masses. An inferior grade is obtained by boiling the crushed fruits in water (Pharmacographia). There are several sorts of it, one (Red dragon's blood), occurring in dark reddish-brown sticks, a foot or more in length, and from 3 to 6 lines in diameter, enveloped with palm leaves, and bound with narrow slips of cane; another occurs in reddish-brown lumps of the size and shape of an olive, also covered with leaves in a moniliform row; another, of very fine quality, is a reddish powder; a fourth occurs in large, irregular pieces or tears, while an inferior kind is in very large masses or lumps, Lump dragon's blood, presenting a heterogeneous fracture (P.).' 'Dragon's blood is brittle, feebly sweetish, or almost tasteless, and odorless. It is not acted upon by water, but is almost all dissolved by alcohol, wood alcohol and ether, only impurities being left undissolved; partly soluble in chloroform and benzene. It fuses by heat, and emits a benzoic-acid-like fume on burning. Its solution stains marble a fine deep-red color.' 'Dragon's blood was formerly considered an astringent, and used in doses of from 10 to 30 grains in passive hemorrhages, diarrhoea, etc. Its principal use is to color tooth powders, plasters, tinctures and varnishes, and to produce a mahogany wood-stain (aloes 1 part, dragon's blood 1 part, alcohol 15 parts).'