The four most antioxidant-packed natural substances so far tested are cloves, amla (Indian gooseberries), triphala (a combination of amla, bibhitaki, and haritaki fruits), and dragon’s blood.
Dragon’s Blood
4.6/5 - (48 votes)
Closing out our exploration of the groundbreaking antioxidant analysis of thousands of foods, herbs, and spices; crowned by cloves—a hundred times more antioxidants than blueberries, here for comparison’s sake; then amla; then triphala—which we should probably avoid, due to toxic metal contamination. And then, by far, the single most antioxidant-packed substance on the planet earth: sangre de grado, blood of the dragon—a bright red sap that oozes when you slash into the bark of this Amazonian tree. Leading to amusing article names such as “Studies on the Antidiarrhoeal Effect of Dragon’s Blood.”
A couple of the studies have been interesting. I’ll mention them briefly, just because this is really more of a medicinal than nutritive product.
There was a study published in the Journal of Inflammation, hoping to get a handle on osteoarthritis, a very frustrating condition, to which modern medicine has little to offer. When people get knee replacements, what do you think they do with the old knees? Well, at Case Western, they gathered them all up—all that human cartilage—to see if they could decrease the rate of cartilage loss in a test tube with a drop or two of dragon’s blood. And indeed, in the context of inflammation, this cartilage starts breaking down. But you add some sap extract, and you can drop that way down. Now, the study was performed by the owner of the company that—you guessed it—sells dragon blood extract, though, so you’ve got to take the findings with a grain of salt.
Also apparently effective at getting cancer cells to kill themselves, here are three lines of human gastrointestinal cancer cells. Add a little bit of that red maple syrup, and you can see the cancer cells wither away as their DNA breaks up. It may also prevent DNA damage in the first place. Here are corn seedlings. The control is on the left, and then a little, then a lot, of a mutagenic toxin, which shrivels the poor things. But you add a little sap to the roots, and the effects of the toxin are blunted.
After all, a single drop of this stuff is equivalent to three apples’ worth of antioxidants. But unfortunately, there were other tests, not funded by a company that sells it, that showed in certain circumstances, dragon’s blood could also cause DNA mutations.
So, the winner for the most antioxidant-packed, non-contaminated, non-mutagenic whole food on the planet: the dried Indian gooseberry powder (amla).
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is transcript contributed by Bruce A. Hamilton.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Carlsen MH, Halvorsen BL, Holte K, Bøhn SK, Dragland S, Sampson L, Willey C, Senoo H, Umezono Y, Sanada C, Barikmo I, Berhe N, Willett WC, Phillips KM, Jacobs DR Jr, Blomhoff R. The total antioxidant content of more than 3100 foods, beverages, spices, herbs and supplements used worldwide. Nutr J. 2010 Jan 22;9:3.
- Gurgel LA, Silva RM, Santos FA, Martins DT, Mattos PO, Rao VS. Studies on the antidiarrhoeal effect of dragon's blood from Croton urucurana. Phytother Res. 2001 Jun;15(4):319-22.
- Miller MJ, Bobrowski P, Shukla M, Gupta K, Haqqi TM. Chondroprotective effects of a proanthocyanidin rich Amazonian genonutrient reflects direct inhibition of matrix metalloproteinases and upregulation of IGF-1 production by human chondrocytes. J Inflamm (Lond). 2007 Aug 14;4:16.
- Sandoval M, Okuhama NN, Clark M, Angeles FM, Lao J, Bustamante S, Miller MJ. Sangre de grado Croton palanostigma induces apoptosis in human gastrointestinal cancer cells. J Ethnopharmacol. 2002 May;80(2-3):121-9.
- Lopes MI, Saffi J, Echeverrigaray S, Henriques JA, Salvador M. Mutagenic and antioxidant activities of Croton lechleri sap in biological systems. J Ethnopharmacol. 2004 Dec;95(2-3):437-45.
Image thanks to Chris Kilham.
Closing out our exploration of the groundbreaking antioxidant analysis of thousands of foods, herbs, and spices; crowned by cloves—a hundred times more antioxidants than blueberries, here for comparison’s sake; then amla; then triphala—which we should probably avoid, due to toxic metal contamination. And then, by far, the single most antioxidant-packed substance on the planet earth: sangre de grado, blood of the dragon—a bright red sap that oozes when you slash into the bark of this Amazonian tree. Leading to amusing article names such as “Studies on the Antidiarrhoeal Effect of Dragon’s Blood.”
A couple of the studies have been interesting. I’ll mention them briefly, just because this is really more of a medicinal than nutritive product.
There was a study published in the Journal of Inflammation, hoping to get a handle on osteoarthritis, a very frustrating condition, to which modern medicine has little to offer. When people get knee replacements, what do you think they do with the old knees? Well, at Case Western, they gathered them all up—all that human cartilage—to see if they could decrease the rate of cartilage loss in a test tube with a drop or two of dragon’s blood. And indeed, in the context of inflammation, this cartilage starts breaking down. But you add some sap extract, and you can drop that way down. Now, the study was performed by the owner of the company that—you guessed it—sells dragon blood extract, though, so you’ve got to take the findings with a grain of salt.
Also apparently effective at getting cancer cells to kill themselves, here are three lines of human gastrointestinal cancer cells. Add a little bit of that red maple syrup, and you can see the cancer cells wither away as their DNA breaks up. It may also prevent DNA damage in the first place. Here are corn seedlings. The control is on the left, and then a little, then a lot, of a mutagenic toxin, which shrivels the poor things. But you add a little sap to the roots, and the effects of the toxin are blunted.
After all, a single drop of this stuff is equivalent to three apples’ worth of antioxidants. But unfortunately, there were other tests, not funded by a company that sells it, that showed in certain circumstances, dragon’s blood could also cause DNA mutations.
So, the winner for the most antioxidant-packed, non-contaminated, non-mutagenic whole food on the planet: the dried Indian gooseberry powder (amla).
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is transcript contributed by Bruce A. Hamilton.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Carlsen MH, Halvorsen BL, Holte K, Bøhn SK, Dragland S, Sampson L, Willey C, Senoo H, Umezono Y, Sanada C, Barikmo I, Berhe N, Willett WC, Phillips KM, Jacobs DR Jr, Blomhoff R. The total antioxidant content of more than 3100 foods, beverages, spices, herbs and supplements used worldwide. Nutr J. 2010 Jan 22;9:3.
- Gurgel LA, Silva RM, Santos FA, Martins DT, Mattos PO, Rao VS. Studies on the antidiarrhoeal effect of dragon's blood from Croton urucurana. Phytother Res. 2001 Jun;15(4):319-22.
- Miller MJ, Bobrowski P, Shukla M, Gupta K, Haqqi TM. Chondroprotective effects of a proanthocyanidin rich Amazonian genonutrient reflects direct inhibition of matrix metalloproteinases and upregulation of IGF-1 production by human chondrocytes. J Inflamm (Lond). 2007 Aug 14;4:16.
- Sandoval M, Okuhama NN, Clark M, Angeles FM, Lao J, Bustamante S, Miller MJ. Sangre de grado Croton palanostigma induces apoptosis in human gastrointestinal cancer cells. J Ethnopharmacol. 2002 May;80(2-3):121-9.
- Lopes MI, Saffi J, Echeverrigaray S, Henriques JA, Salvador M. Mutagenic and antioxidant activities of Croton lechleri sap in biological systems. J Ethnopharmacol. 2004 Dec;95(2-3):437-45.
Image thanks to Chris Kilham.
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Dragon’s Blood
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
In honor of the Chinese New Year (of the dragon)!
Be sure to check out all my other videos on amla.
For further context, also check out my associated blog post: Açai to Zucchini: antioxidant food rankings.
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