Aloe

There are over 500 species of aloe growing in climates worldwide. It grows mainly in dry regions of Africa, Asia, Europe, and America. Aloe plants range in height from a few inches to 30 feet or more. The leaves of many species can become quite large and are lance shaped with jagged edges

Aloe products were in use at the time of Cleopatra and Alexander the Great (Anon, 1998), and they are now popular food and cosmetic additives and dietary supplements.

Aloe was ranked number six in herbal supplement sales in natural food stores in the US based on sales for 1996 and the first two months of 1997 as reported in survey questionnaires from 100 of 9,000 stores in the industry (Blumenthal, 1998).

Aloe, a genus of plants belonging to the order Liliaceae, with about 90 species growing in the dry parts of Africa, especially Cape Colony, 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, Amaryllidaceae.

Aloe vera gel is not listed in EPA’s Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory (NLM, 1998).

Aloe is included in the San Diego Water Conservation Program's list of Low Water Use Drought Tolerant Plants. Tree Aloe, Tiger Aloe, and Medicinal Aloe Vera.

Other Articles About Aloe:

• Caring for aloe vera plants
• Common Kinds Of Aloe
• Medicinal Uses of Aloes
• How Aloins Are Extracted
• Clean Air Benefits From Aloe
• STUDY OF USING ALOE ON FISH WITH INJURED SKIN
• Other Popular Natural Remedies

   

   

 

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.

 

La amplia utilización de cuatro plantas (aloe vera, ginseng, kava kava y cardo lechero) propicia pruebas sobre su seguridad

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