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Aloe Vera

Posting Date: 06/10/2002

Original Posting: 1/1/2000

There are nearly five hundred species of aloe, a type of plant that originated in southern Africa, near the Cape of Good Hope.

The use of aloe goes back in history. There are pictures of aloe plants on some Egyptian temples. The Greek physician Dioscorides wrote of its benefits to heal wounds and treat hemorrhoids.

Aloes now grow throughout Africa, around the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, and in many countries in South America.

The thick, juicy leaves contain two distinct products that are used medicinally and that need to be distinguished to avoid confusion.

One is the thin clear gel or mucilage that oozes from the middle of a broken leaf.

The other is a bitter latex, referred to as aloe vera juice, derived from the cells just under the surface of the leaf. Their compositions and uses differ.

Active Ingredients

Gel: mucopolysaccharides.

Latex: anthraquinone derivatives, mostly in the form of aloins, with smaller amounts of hydroxyaloins, aloe-emodin, and aloeresins.

Uses

Gel: The mucilage is used topically on wounds and burns to help them heal more rapidly.

Taken internally, it is considered a general tonic. Unfortunately, separation of the gel from the latex for commercial preparations is often incomplete, and the gel may end up with some laxative action due to inadvertent inclusion of latex.

It has been recommended for burns due to radiation, but like most of its uses this one is considered incompletely proved and controversial.

There is no harm in applying fresh gel from a broken leaf to a minor cut or burn, and many people find it soothing. But studies using commercial preparations have not consistently established benefit in speeding wound healing, and there are questions about their chemical stability.

In the test tube, gels from some species of aloe have antibacterial activity. A. vera, however, does not appear to kill many microbes.