Essential Information & explanations, latest texts & monographs on
Aloe.
Crown of aloes by Norah Lofts
Aloe Vera: Nature's Soothing Healer by Diane Gage
Aloe Vera The New Millennium : The Future of Wellness in the 21st Century by Robert Ahola
Aloe Vera: Nature's Legendary Healer by Alasdair Barcroft
Aloe Myth Magic Medicine: Aloe Vera Across Time by Odus M. Hennessee
Aloe Vera (Woodland Health Series) by Deanne Tenney
Ngf and Related Molecules in Health and Disease (Progress in Brain Research, Vol 146) by Luigi Aloe
Aloe Vera, Jojoba and Yucca by John Heinerman
Miracle in Aloe Vera, the: The Facts About Polymannans by Neecie Moore
Aloes: The Genus Aloe (Medicinal and Aromatic Plants - Industrial Profiles, 35) by Tom Reynolds
Aloe Vera : A Mission Discovered by Lee Ritter
A Lesson from Aloes by Athol Fugard
First Field Guide to Aloes of Southern Africa by Gideon Smith
ALOE by Katherine Mansfield
Aloe vera, nopal, jojoba, y yuca by Blanca Herp
Aloe
Aloe, a genus of plants belonging to the family
Asphodelaceae, with about 400 species growing in the dry parts of
Africa, especially Cape Province, and in the mountains of tropical
Africa. They are succulent plants. Members of the closely allied genera Gasteria and Haworthia, with a similar mode of growth, are also
cultivated and popularly known as aloes. The plants are
apparently stemless, bearing a rosette of large, thick, fleshy
leaves, or have a shorter or longer (sometimes branched)
stem, along which, or towards the end of which and its
branches, the generally fleshy leaves are borne. They are
cultivated as ornamental plants, especially in public
buildings and gardens, for their stiff, rugged habit. The
leaves are generally lance-shaped with a sharp apex and a
spiny margin, but vary in colour from grey to bright green
and are sometimes striped or mottled. The rather small
tubular yellow or red flowers are borne on simple or branched
leafless stems and are generally densely clustered. The
juice of the leaves of certain species yields aloes (see
below). In some cases, as in Aloe venenosa, the juice is
poisonous. The plant called American aloe, Agave americana, belongs to a different order, Agavaceae.
Aloes is a medicinal substance used as a purgative and
produced from various species of aloe, such as A. vera,
vulgaris, socotrina, chinensis, and perryi. Several
kinds of aloes are distinguished in commerce--Barbadoes,
Socotrine, hepatic, Indian, and Cape aloes. The first two
are those commonly used for medicinal purposes. Aloes is
the expressed juice of the leaves of the plant. When the
leaves are cut the juice flows out and is collected and
evaporated. After the juice has been obtained, the leaves are
sometimes boiled, to yield an inferior kind of aloes.
Aloe vera
From these plants active principles termed aloins are
extracted by water. According to W. A. Shenstone, two classes
are to be recognized: (1) nataloins, which yield picric and
oxalic acids with nitric acid, and do not give a red coloration
with nitric acid; and (2) barbaloins, which yield aloetic
acid, C7H2N3Q5; chrysammic acid, C7H2N2O6; picric
and oxalic acids with nitric acid, being reddened by this
reagent. This second group may be divided into a-barbaloins,
obtained from Barbadoes aloes, and reddened in the cold,
and b-barbaloins, obtained from Socotrine and Zanzibar
aloes, reddened by ordinary nitric acid only when warmed or
by fuming acid in the cold. Nataloin, 2C17H13O7.H2O,
forms bright yellow scales, melting at 212-222 deg.; barbaloin,
C17H18O7, forms yellow prismatic crystals. Aloes also
contain a trace of volatile oil, to which its odour is due.
The dose is 2 to 5 grains, that of aloin being 1/2 to 2 grains.
Aloes can be absorbed from a broken surface and will then cause
purging. When given internally it increases the actual amount
as well as the rate of flow of the bile. It hardly affects
the small intestine, but markedly stimulates the muscular
coat of the large intestine, causing purging in about fifteen
hours. There is hardly any increase in the intestinal
secretion, the drug being emphatically not a hydragogue
cathartic. There is no doubt that its habitual use may be a
factor in the formation of haemorrhoids; as in the case of all
drugs that act powerfully on the lower part of the intestine,
without simultaneously lowering the venous pressure by causing
increase of secretion from the bowel. Aloes also tends to
increase the menstrual flow and therefore belongs to the group of
emmenagogues. Aloin is preferable to aloes for therapeutic
purposes, as it causes less, if any, pain. It is a valuable
drug in many forms of constipation, as its continual use
does not, as a rule, lead to the necessity of enlarging the
dose. Its combined action on the bowel and the uterus is of
especial value in chlorosis, of which amenorrhoea is an almost
constant symptom. The drug is obviously contraindicated in
pregnancy and when haemorrhoids are already present. Many
well-known patent medicines consist essentially of aloes.
Drinks made from aloe pulp are popular in Asia, especially in Korea, as commercial beverages, and as a tea additive.
Flower of aloe (Roquevaire, Bouches-du-Rhône, France, September 1978)
The lign-aloes is quite different from the medicinal aloes.
The word is used in the Bible (Numbers 24:6), but as the trees
usually supposed to be meant by this word are not native in
Syria, it has been suggested that the Septuagint reading in which
the word does not occur is to be preferred. Lign-aloe is a
corruption of the Latin lignum-aloe, a wood, not a resin.
Dioscorides refers to it as agallochon, a wood brought from
Arabia or India, which was odoriferous but with an astringent
and bitter taste. This may be Aquilaria agallochum, a
native of East India and China, which supplies the so-called
eagle-wood or aloes-wood, which contains much resin and oil.
Initial text from a 1911 encyclopedia. Please update as needed.
The above article is adapted from from Wikipedia All Wikipedia article text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
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