What is dragon’s blood resin? The forgotten 2,000-year-old skincare ingredient used by ancient Roman and Arab women

Dragon’s blood resin is a natural sap collected from the Dracaena trees, which were native to the island of Socotra, in present-day Yemen. When harvested, the resin hardens into dark red crystals, which are then crushed into powder, infused into oils, and mixed into skincare preparations. Its unique crimson colour contributed to its legendary status throughout history, gaining the name 'dragon's blood resin'.

The Romans were initially known for their elaborate beauty and wellness routines, which were traded through Roman commercial networks that stretched across the Mediterranean and then into Africa and Arabia. Roman women incorporated the botanical ingredients into unique beauty treatments, creating protective skin balms, improving the appearance of skin texture, and blending into perfumes and cosmetic preparations. Resin was earlier considered an exotic luxury because of the complexity of using it due to the long trade routes.

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Dragon’s blood resin mainly held significance in Arabian culture, where it was prized not only for beauty but also in the segment of medicine and incense. Arabian women used it to calm inflamed skin, protect themselves from harsh desert conditions, and improve the overall appearance of scars and blemishes. It also created fragrant beauty preparations which further established its reputation as one of the era’s most coveted natural substances.

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Dragon's blood resin has always had an enormous amount of value due to its rarity and the difficulty in obtaining it. Perhaps what makes the resin even more valuable is that it was transported via many ancient trade routes that encompassed each of Africa, India, Europe, and Arabia, thus giving the resin an increased price because of its long-distance transportation and long time required to obtain it. In addition to being used in the beauty industry, dragon's blood resin was also used for traditional medicine, ceremonial purposes, incense creation, dye production, and making artistic pigments; therefore, the resin had great utility and very high value.

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Dragons blood resin is becoming increasingly popular among cosmetic companies and scientists as they discover its unusual chemical structure. Its chemical makeup is made up of polyphenols, flavonoids, proanthocyanidins, & taspine, which are all linked to skin-soothing & antioxidant benefits. Research has also begun to confirm the benefits of dragons blood, with one study finding that a dragons blood cream accelerated wound healing significantly faster than placebo control in a 2015 placebo-controlled clinical trial published in the Journal of Traditional & Complementary Medicine. Researchers hypothesised that natural compounds found in dragons blood, including taspine & polyphenols, may promote skin repair/regeneration.

​https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4737969/

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