Guaiacum
Lignum vitae, “wood of life”; lignum sanctum
- Known today as
- The wood and resin of Guaiacum officinale and G. sanctum.
- Kind
- Resin & Wood, in 2 older authorities
- Constituents
- guaiaconic acid, guaiaretic acid, guaiacol
- Earliest authority here
- Ulrich von Hutten
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
Guaiacum: what was it used for?
A decoction of the wood, with sweating and fasting, against the French disease, syphilis.
Guaiacum: what does modern science say?
It does not cure syphilis. Its resin turns blue with blood, which gave medicine the guaiac test for hidden blood.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- guaiaconic acida resin acid that turns blue on oxidation
- guaiaretic acid ChEMBLa lignan
- guaiacol ChEMBLfrom the wood’s distillation; the expectorant guaifenesin was derived from it
- Mechanism
- The resin is a mild diaphoretic and the decoction, with sweating and fasting, treated a disease that remits on its own, which is why it seemed to cure syphilis for a generation and made the Fuggers rich; nothing in it touches the spirochaete. Its two real legacies are guaifenesin, the cough expectorant synthesised from guaiacol, and the guaiac test for hidden blood in the stool, in which the blue reaction of guaiaconic acid with haem screened for bowel cancer from 1864 until the immunochemical test replaced it.
- Toxic dose
- Safe at the old doses; the wood dust sensitises.
- Standing
- The guaiac faecal occult blood test (Hemoccult) is still in use; the wood is CITES Appendix II.
- Greegor, D. H. (1967). “Diagnosis of large-bowel cancer in the asymptomatic patient.” JAMA 201. Verified against its record · doi:10.1001/jama.1967.03130120051012
- Munger, R. S. (1949). “Guaiacum, the holy wood from the New World.” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 4. Verified against its record · doi:10.1093/jhmas/iv.2.196
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
- A Night with VenusThe French disease, the holy wood, and the mercury cure.
Guaiacum: what lore surrounds it?
Its names, lignum vitae, “wood of life,” and the Spanish palo santo, “holy stick,” show the reverence the wood attracted when it reached Europe as a cure for the French disease. The Renaissance goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini wrote of dosing himself with a decoction of it, and believed it had cured him.
Guaiacum: what did the older authorities say?
- Ulrich von Hutten
- The German knight, a sufferer, praised it in a famous treatise of 1519; he died of the disease four years later.
- The Fuggers
- The Augsburg bankers profited greatly from its import.
Sources
- Hutten, U. von (1519). De guaiaci medicina et morbo gallico. Book, seen in reviews
- Wikipedia, “Lignum vitae.” Book, seen in reviews
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
- Sources
- 4 cited: 2 verified against its record, 2 book, seen in reviews.
- 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
- Chicago
“Guaiacum.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified September 25, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/guaiacum.
- MLA
“Guaiacum.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 25 Sept. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/guaiacum. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Guaiacum. (2026, September 25). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/guaiacum
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See Also
Drawing on the same sources: Wikipedia
Nearby in the alphabet
Gum arabic (The dried sap of Senegalia senegal and related acacias) · Ground pine (yellow bugle, distinct from arthritica (note XLIX)) · Hagstone (A stone with a natural hole worn through it) · Hamech, confection of (senna, polypody, and colocynth, among many other purgatives) · Ground cherry (the ground cherries) · The Hand of Glory (holding a candle made from the fat of a hanged man) · Greater celandine (Chelidonium majus)
Historical description, not medical advice.