Aloe Ferox Medicinal Properties

The healing properties of aloe have been known for millennia. The use of aloe was discovered on a Mesopotamian clay tablet (ca. 2100 BC). Aloes were listed in the Ebers papyrus (ca. 1500 BC) as an established cathartic.

Legend has it that aloe was an important part of the beauty regimen of the Egyptian queens, Nefertiti and Cleopatra. The Greek physician Dioscorides, while accompanying Nero’s army, mentioned aloe in his writing (ca 100 AD). Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) was persuaded by Aristotle to capture the island of Socrota in the Indian Ocean to secure its aloe supplies to treat his wounded soldiers (Bruce 1975).

Numerous Aloe species have been used medicinally but only Aloe ferox, Aloe perryi and Aloe vera have demonstrated any commercial importance (Grindlay 1986). Scientific literature now documents various medical applications.

Aloe gel has demonstrated anti-inflammatory (Vázquez 1996, Bautista 2004), wound healing (Davis 1989, 1994, Heggers 1996), anti-tumour (Kim 1999, Pecere 2000), antiviral (McDaniels 1990a,b), anti-microbial (Wang 1998) and anti-diabetic (Reynolds 1999) activity.
It has also shown immune stimulating (Zhang 1996, Strickland 2001) and cholesterol lowering activity (Tizard 1989).

The active constituent in the aloe exudate (bitter) is the anthrones. They are degraded in the colon by bacteria to aloe-emodin, which function as a stimulant laxative (Blumenthal, 1998).

Studies have also demonstated aloe-emodin to be antiviral (Sydiskis 1991), an antioxidant (Yen, 2000), effective for liver cancer prevention (Kuo 2002) and inhibits neuroectodermal tumor cell growth (Pecere 2000).