Crazy Medical Science: Dragon Blood!

I am subscribed to a fairly large number of RSS feeds for journals. This means I get to scan many article titles and abstracts. Some of the journals I am subscribed to are medical journals - their articles tend to report on clinical trials and drugs I have never heard of. They are not particularly useful to me.

One of the journals that seems most relevant to me is the Journal of the Radiation Research Society. There are many articles in the journal that are closely related to what I am working on, or what I hope to someday be working on.

Today an article caught my eye, but not because I thought it would be relevant to me. "Dragon's Blood May Have Radioprotective Effects in Radiation-Induced Rat Brain Injury" (subscription required). What? The cure for cancer is dragon's blood? Obviously I should get my sword ready and go on a quest!

The first sentence of the abstract explains what Dragon's Blood is. I was a bit disappointed:

Dragon's blood is a bright red resin obtained from Dracaena cochinchinensis. It is a traditional medicinal that is used for wound healing and to stop bleeding.

I suppose that I can believe that Dracaena cochinchinensis is the Latin name for a dragon. I refuse to look it up and be disappointed...

Are you out there news media? You've recently given me headlines about the zombie apocalypse. Now I demand headlines about Dragon's blood curing cancer!