Sangre De Grado (Dragon's Blood) for Gut Health

Research suggests that Sangre de Grado (Croton lechleri) has meaningful evidence supporting its role in gut health, with laboratory and animal studies demonstrating antidiarrheal properties, protection against stomach ulcers, potential activity against gastrointestinal cancer cells, and reduction of colonic inflammation through specific immune pathways. Reviews spanning 2003 to 2025 consistently describe traditional and pharmacologically supported uses for diarrhea, dysentery, and digestive conditions, and a 2025 mouse model study pointed to benefits in ulcerative colitis via NF-κB/NLPR3/Caspase-1 signaling. However, clinical evidence from humans is more limited and mixed — two randomized controlled trials examining crofelemer, a pharmaceutical derivative of Croton lechleri, in women with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome found some benefit for abdominal pain but did not show significant improvement in stool consistency or overall bowel function. Taken together, the preclinical and traditional evidence base is reasonably robust, but the human trial data remain limited in scope and mixed in outcome, suggesting that stronger clinical research would be needed before firm conclusions about efficacy in humans can be drawn.