Bloodstone
Haematites
- Known today as
- Hematite, iron oxide, which streaks blood-red; the name was later given to green jasper spotted with red.
- Kind
- Mineral, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- haematite, chalcedony with iron inclusions
- Earliest authority here
- Pliny (AD 23/24–79)
- In other databases
- Wikidata search
Revised October 1, 2026: An older authority added from a text read in full. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.
Bloodstone: what was it used for?
To stop bleeding, worn or powdered, and for the eyes.
Bloodstone: what does modern science say?
No effect beyond that of any astringent powder.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- haematiteiron(III) oxide, in the mineral haematites
- chalcedony with iron inclusionsin the heliotrope, the green bloodstone of the jewellers
- Mechanism
- Powdered haematite is iron oxide, nearly insoluble and unabsorbed: it is not an iron tonic, stops no bleeding, and in the eye is grit. The green bloodstone is quartz. The reputation is the colour.
- Toxic dose
- Inert.
- Standing
- Obsolete; a lapidary’s stone.
- Kunz, G. F. (1913). The Curious Lore of Precious Stones. Lippincott. Verified against its record · doi:10.5479/sla.97375.39088015763006
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
What Medicine Makes of It
- The Weapon-SalveCuring the wound by anointing the blade, and the harm of the remedies it replaced.
Bloodstone: what lore surrounds it?
Christian legend held the red spots of the green stone to be drops of Christ’s blood fallen at the Cross.
Its older Greek name, heliotrope, “sun-turner,” comes from the belief that the stone could turn the sun blood-red when placed in water. Renaissance books of magic credited it, joined with the heliotrope flower, with the power to make its bearer invisible: a literary and magical tradition rather than a folk-medical one.
Bloodstone: what did the older authorities say?
- Pliny
- “Heliotropium is found in Æthiopia, Africa, and Cyprus: it is of a leek-green colour, streaked with blood-red veins.” It takes its name, Pliny says, because “if placed in a vessel of water and exposed to the full light of the sun, it changes to a reflected colour like that of blood,” and out of water “it reflects the figure of the sun like a mirror.” Its use gives him “a most glaring illustration of the impudent effrontery of the adepts in magic, for they say that, if it is combined with the plant heliotropium, and certain incantations are then repeated over it, it will render the person invisible who carries it about him.” Of the hæmatites, he adds, any kind may be taken fasting “in doses of three drachmæ, triturated in oil, for affections of the blood.”
Sources
- Pliny, Natural History XXXVI. Primary text
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History 37.60; 36.38, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library. Primary text
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Each quotation from the older authorities checked word for word against the text, read in full
- Sources
- 3 cited: 1 verified against its record, 2 primary text.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 1, 2026
- Chicago
“Bloodstone.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 1, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/bloodstone.
- MLA
“Bloodstone.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/bloodstone. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Bloodstone. (2026, October 1). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/bloodstone
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See Also
Also in Pliny the Elder
Broom in Pliny the Elder · Bladderwrack in Pliny the Elder · Bryony in Pliny the Elder · Black pepper in Pliny the Elder · everything Pliny the Elder names →
Drawing on the same sources: Pliny, Kunz
Caesar’s mushroom · Castoreum · The precious stones · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Bogbean · Bloodroot (the first flower of the spring woods from Canada to the South) · Borage (Borago officinalis) · Blessed paper (Paper blessed so that what is written on it may take effect) · Borax (brought as the crude salt tincal from the lakes of Tibet) · Blessed oil · Breve (A written prayer or holy names folded and worn on the body) · Blessed herbs (especially on the feast of the Assumption (15 August))
Historical description, not medical advice.