Guaiacum uses, including as lumber, for medicinal purposes, and as ornamentals. The trade of all species of "Guaiacum" is controlled under CITES Appendix II. "Guaiacum officinale" is the national flower of Jamaica, while "Guaiacum sanctum" is the national tree of the Bahamas. The genus is famous as the supplier of lignum vitae, which is the heartwood of several species in the genus. It is the fourth-hardest variety of wood as measured by the Janka hardness test, requiring a force of to embed a steel ball in diameter half that distance into the wood. The Spanish encountered guaiacum wood when they conquered
Draize test are removed with sticky tape), then covered with plastic sheeting. According to the British Research Defence Society, the Draize eye test is now a "very mild test," in which small amounts of substances are used and are washed out of the eye at the first sign of irritation. In a letter to "Nature", written to refute an article saying that the Draize test had not changed much since the 1940s, Andrew Huxley wrote: "A substance expected from its chemical nature to be seriously painful must not be tested in this way; the test is permissible only if the substance has