Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) is an herbaceous North American plant which is distributed from Florida to Nova Scotia and West to the Rocky Mountains. It has a history of ethnobotanical uses. In particular, the root of the S. canadensis has been used by Native Americans in traditional medicine. Native American people such as Algonquian, Iroquois, and Siouan language groups found various ways to use bloodroot, which they called poughkone or puccoon. The roots were used as a poultice for wounds or chewed and applied to relieve the pain of burns. It was also used to treat infections due to its anti-bacterial properties.

Bloodroot contains various alkaloids such as sanguinarine, chelerythrine, sanguilutine, chelilutine, sanguirubine, chelirubine, protopine, and allocryptopine. These alkaloids have demonstrated anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory activities. For instance, sanguinarine, a major alkaloid in bloodroot, showed strong anti-inflammatory activity. Other alkaloids such as protopine and chelerythrine were also found to be anti-inflammatory by inhibiting nitric oxide or PGE2 production and COX-2 expression.