# 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

## What was it used for?

To stop bleeding, worn or powdered, and for the eyes.

## What does modern science say?

No effect beyond that of any astringent powder.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **haematite**: iron(III) oxide, in the mineral haematites
- **chalcedony with iron inclusions**: in 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.

**Dose.** Inert.

**Standing.** Obsolete; a lapidary’s stone.

## 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.

## 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.
- Pliny the Elder, *Natural History* 37.60; 36.38, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library.
- Kunz, G. F. (1913). *The Curious Lore of Precious Stones*. Lippincott.

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*Bloodstone.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/bloodstone

Historical description, not medical advice.