VITAL SIGNS; 'Dragon's Blood' May Fight An Ulcer Bacterium
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: November 27, 2007
Researchers have discovered that a plant widely used in traditional Chinese medicine contains compounds that slow the growth of the germ that causes most peptic ulcers.
The chemists, led by Weimin Zhao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, isolated 22 compounds from the treelike plant, Dracaena cochinchinensis, which gives off a dark-red resinous substance called dragon's blood. They found two that were effective against the ulcer bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, and eight others that worked as blood thinners.
Their report appears in the October issue of The Journal of Natural Products.
''Many traditional Chinese medicines have been confirmed to possess various beneficial effects,'' Dr. Zhao said in an e-mail message, ''but it is still not easy to understand thoroughly how they work.''
Dr. Zhao does not claim that Dracaena, used in China for stomach ailments, fractures and wounds, is a substitute for modern medicine. Its antibacterial compounds would need to be taken in much higher concentrations than amoxicillin, an antibiotic used for peptic ulcers. The blood-thinning compounds the researchers found were effective, but not nearly as powerful as, for example, heparin, a common blood thinner.
''An herb medicine may contain hundreds of components,'' Dr. Zhao said, adding, ''To be clear, the anti-Helicobacter-pylori components we identified may only contribute in part to the peptic-ulcer healing effect of Dracaena cochinchinensis.''