From the Health Library Click on the link for more information about this amazing plant.

“The healing properties of Aloe Vera

The healing properties of the succulent plant aloe vera have been known for thousands of years. Belonging to the lily family and related to the onion, garlic and asparagus, evidence supporting the early use of aloe was discovered on a Mesopotamian clay tablet dating from 2100 BC. In Cairo in 1862, George Ebers, a German Egyptologist, bought a papyrus which had been found in a sarcophagus excavated near Thebes a few years earlier. Aloe vera as a herbal preparation, was mentioned in the papyrus no fewer than 12 times.

Aloe vera was well known not only to the Egyptians, but also the Roman, Greek, Arab and Indian cultures. In fact, many famous physicians of those times, including Dioscorides, Pliny the EIder and Galen – considered to be the father of modem medicine – included aloe vera in their therapeutic armouries.

Myths and legends surrounding the use of aloe vera in ancient times suggest that it was an important part of the beauty regime of the Egyptian queens, Nefertiti and Cleopatra. Legend has it that, in 333 BC, Alexander the Great was persuaded by his mentor Aristotle to capture the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean, famed for its supply of aloe which he needed to heal his wounded soldiers.”

Aloe vera is not strongly antiseptic but is soothing and calming.

It has antioxidant properties, enzymes that aid digestion, a type of magnesium that calms the histamine reaction when an allergen presents itself, also certain types of ‘sugars’ that line the gut to help it heal and possibly aid leaky gut syndrome.

Aloe also contains agents that can kill tiny mycrobes, with some analgesic qualities and Aloe Vera can act like a carrier, taking other substances deep into the dermis of the skin.

There is some antiseptic actions in the tropical Aloe Vera plant. Aloe also contains sallcylic which can clear dead skin cells and aid healing. Aloe Vera also contains 22 of 20 important amino acids.

I have been ‘trying’ to find an Aloe Vera product without sodium hydroxide because that makes my skin itch or without glycerine because that is an humectant and binds water to itself and there is some thought that it takes the water out of your skin if applied to the face.

I do have Aloe Vera plants on my window sill and I could use a part of the leaf every day.

However it isn’t only the juice from the leaves that gives the properties listed here but the properties come from the leaf itself as well as the flowers and the woody stems. I cut up a leaf and put it in my cat’s bowl with his food and he loves it! Not sure that I have noticed any differences to his health but he is a healthy cat anyway.