Dragon’s Blood and the FDA Approval Path for Botanicals with Dr. Steven King

This week on Foodie Pharmacology, we’re going to embark on a journey from the Amazonian rainforest to the pharmacy as we retrace the pathway of bringing a botanical drug to market to treat serious cases of diarrhea as an FDA approved drug. I first encountered the source of this drug 20 years ago in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon. Locally known as Sangre de Drago – or the dragon’s blood tree – it is used in traditional medicine for both topical and internal afflictions. Its bark is a smooth pale grey, and a slip of a knife dragged across that bark reveals a weeping blood red latex, from which it gets its name. I speak with Dr. Steven King, Executive Vice President of Sustainable Supply and Ethnobotanical Research and intellectual property at Jaguar Health and Napo Pharmaceuticals, about his work on this fascinating medicinal species.

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