Production and characterization of dragon's blood from leaf blades of Dracaena cambodiana elicited by Fusarium proliferatum

The resinous wood of Dracaena cambodiana is one of the main resources of dragon's blood, a precious traditional medicine, in China. Recent overexploitation to meet the increasing demand of dragon's blood has resulted in the rapid depletion of the natural resource. D. cambodiana grows very slow, but has plenty of leaves that regenerate yearly. This work aimed to use the leaf to produce dragon's blood, by fungal elicitation, and to study the physical and chemical profiles as well as biological activities of the elicited product. Both Fusarium proliferatum YM-266 and F. proliferatum YM-71213 effectively elicited dragon's blood formation from the leaves in and around the inoculation spots. The dragon's blood produced from the leaves by the fungal elicitation was similar in physical property, chemical property (analyzed by TLC and HPLC), as well as in anticoagulant activity, but was higher in total flavonoid content and antimicrobial activity than that from the stem. These findings provide a possibility to sustainably produce dragon's blood from the regeneratable leaves without destroying the tree and environment.

► Two F. proliferatum strains effectively elicited dragon's blood production from the leaf.
► The product was similar in physicochemical properties to the commercial product from the stem.
► The flavonoid content and antimicrobial activity of it were higher than that of the latter.
► The anticoagulant activity was also similar.