Pliny and other classical writers use cinnabaris for both the red resin later called dragon's blood and, separately, the mineral cinnabar, mercury sulfide, and scholars disagree over which passages refer to which substance.
What would resolve this A study disentangling the classical vocabulary for red resins and red minerals, establishing which passages securely name the Socotran dragon tree resin.
OpenClassical philology, history of pharmacologyMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion