“Dragon’s blood” may sound like an exotic ingredient in a witch’s brew or magic potion. But researchers in China are reporting that the material — which is actually a bright red plant sap used for thousands of years in traditional Chinese medicine — contains chemicals that were effective in laboratory experiments in fighting bacteria that cause millions of cases of gastrointestinal disease each year.

The formation of a cancer is proven to be a multi-stage, multi-mechanism process by animal and human studies. As a definite carcinogen, the role of Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) in the formation of gastric cancer has been unclear.

Microbes and humans interact in myriad ways, sharing a long history. Many of the most successful microbes are those that inhabit but do not kill their host. Cheaters lose. Tuberculosis settles into the lungs.

Helicobacter pylori has been extensively studied and proven to be the main cause of chronic gastritis and peptic ulcer in the HIV-negative population. Patients with chronic active gastritis have evidence of H pylori infection in over 90% of cases and in 70-100% of those with peptic ulcer disease.

New immunization methods offer long-term protection against H. pylori in humans and may contribute to a possible ulcer vaccine in the future say researchers from the University of California, Davis. They report their findings in the July 2007 journal Infection and Immunity.