Medicinal History of Aloe Vera

Other Names of Aloe Vera

Aloe derives from the Arabic halal, meaning a shining, bitter substance (3)
Among 360 species, Aloe Vera is the official name recognized by the International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature. (5)

• Cape Aloe
• Aloe Curacao
• Barbados Aloe
• Venezuela Aloe
• Indian Aloe
• Mediterranean Aloe
• Star Cactus
• Common Aloe
• Yellow Aloe
• Medicinal Aloe
• Burn Plant
• Medicine Plant
• Wand of Heaven and Plant of Life


Medicinal History of Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera has been used for several thousand years. Stories about Aloe plant can be found in many cultures from the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, as well as in the literature of the Indian and Chinese peoples.

Ancient Egyptians called aloe the “plant of immortality,” and depicted aloe in wall paintings. The Egyptian queens Nefertiti and Cleopatra used Aloe Vera as part of their regular beauty regimes. (1)

Aloe is also mentioned in the Bible several times. Aloe was also employed as an embalming ingredient. In the Gospel Of St. John (19: 39-40), the body of Christ was wrapped in linen and a mixture of myrrh and aloe. (2)

As early as the 4th century B.C., Greeks sent by Alexander the Great to the southern Yemen island of Socotra cultivated aloe. Alexander the Great used Aloe Vera to treat his wounded soldiers. Knowledge of aloe’s healing virtues spread.

In his 1st century A.D “Greek Herbal,” physician Pedianus Dioscorides gave the first detailed description of aloe. Dioscorides noted that the sap, not the gel is the healing agent, equating increased bitterness of aloe with increased effectiveness. According to Dioscorides, taken internally aloe induces sleep and cleanses the stomach, heals tonsillitis and relieves diseases of the mouth; used topically aloe relieves boils, bruises, hemorrhoids, wounds, dry itchy skin and ulcerated genitals, heals foreskin, stops hair loss, and soothes the eyes. (1)

Other early herbalists including Galen and Pliny employed aloe.
In the 10th century aloe’s uses were described by Arab physicians, and aloe was introduced to Europe and listed in Anglo Saxon medical texts.
In China aloe was called Lu-hui, meaning "black deposit," and was first mentioned in the 11th century. (1,2)
Records from the 17th century show that Britain’s East India Company purchased and traded aloe from Socotra and Zanzibar. The West Indies became an important commercial region for cultivated aloe sold to the European market as early as the 1600’s. There the Dutch established plantations in Barbados, Curacao, Aruba and Bonaire. (3, 4) By 18th century large amounts of Aloe were being imported to be made into medicines. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries Aloe remained one of the most popular medicines.

Popular demand for effective laxative effects and other reputed health benefits ensured aloe’s cultivation, processing and trade.
From most recent history, Gandhi drank the inner gel from Aloe Vera, which helped him maintain a high energy level despite his often poor diet.


References:

(1). “History Of Aloe vera” From History of Biomedicine-Indigenous Cultures
Karolinska Institutet.
(2). Bown, Deni. The Herb Society Of America Encyclopedia of Herbs & Their Uses. 1st ed., (New York: Dorling Kindersley. 1995), 235.
(3) Tyler, Varro., Brady, Lynn., Robbers, James., Pharmacognosy. 9th ed., (Philadelphia,
Lea & Febiger, 1988) 62 – 64.
(4) Evans, W.C., Trease and Evans’ Pharmacognosy, 13th ed., (Philadelphia, Bailliere
Tindall, 1989) 413 – 416
(5) Leung AY, Foster S. Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients Used in Food, Drugs and Cosmetics, 2nd ed. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1996), 25 – 28.