Aloe Vera: Natural wonder cure

While the authors of this work have made every effort to ensure that the information contained in this book is as accurate and up to date as possible at the time of publication, medical and pharmaceutical knowledge is constantly changing and the application of it to particular circumstances depends on many factors. Therefore it is recommended that readers always consult a qualified medical specialist for individual advice. This book should not be used as an alternative to seeking specialist medical advice, which should be sought before any action is taken. The authors and publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors and omissions that may be found in the text, or any actions that may be taken by a reader as a result of any reliance on the information contained in the text, which is taken entirely at the reader’s own risk.

Thorsons

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Published by Thorsons 2000

© Julia Lawless and Judith Allan 2000

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Source ISBN 9780722538241

Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2014 ISBN: 9780008105778

Version: 2014-09-16

Dedication

To DR HAMISH ALLAN MBE

for his infinite kindness to all living beings

Contents

ALOE VERA

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

Part One: Botanical, Historical and Cultural Origins

The Aloe Vera Family Tree

Myth, Legend and Folklore

Traditional Uses

The Age of Discovery

Part Two: Modern Times: Aloe Vera’s Medical Uses

20th-century Advances

Aloe Vera as a Wound-healing Agent

Skin and Hair Care

Anti-inflammatory Properties

Aloe Vera and the Immune System

Part Three: Aloe Vera in the Home

Safety Data

Dosage and Quality Control

Growing Your Own Aloe Vera Plant

A—Z of Natural First Aid and Home Treatments

Part Four: Further Information

The Chemical Composition of Aloe Vera

References

Bibliography

Useful Addresses

Acknowledgements

Other Books By

About the Publisher

Preface

ALOE VERA

I have always had a great love of plants, especially aromatic herbs and those species which have medicinal qualities. Aloe vera is not only an easy and extremely decorative plant to grow at home, it is also one of the most versatile and potent natural remedies available.

Aloe vera’s freshly cut leaves have enormous value as a home treatment for a wide range of common complaints, and this adaptability is reflected in the ever-expanding range of Aloe vera products which can be found on the market today.

I myself have experienced the dramatic healing potential of aloe in relation to skin care. Having suffered from an allergic skin rash for several months and trying a number of different natural treatments without success, the condition cleared up in less than a week after daily application with Aloe vera gel! I have come across numerous personal accounts of a similar and even more startling nature, where Aloe vera was able to bring about a seemingly miraculous recovery when all other medicines had failed. It is no wonder that one of the folk names for this remarkable plant is ‘Miracle Worker’!

In writing this book I have been extremely fortunate to have been working with Judith Allan as co-author. Having grown up in southern Africa, one of her earliest recollections was of her grandfather’s sub-tropical garden. He was a collector of cycads as well as rare and giant aloes. On his death the collection was presented to the Durban Botanic Gardens. A crane was even employed to lift and transport them to their new home!

Judith says:

My grandfather’s garden was like a jungle: an everlasting source of wonder to me as a child. My mother inherited his love of plants and was a very gifted gardener. I grew up in a household where plants and medicine held sway. My father was a Scots GP, who despised the drug companies and their representatives and always talked of the importance of Nature in healing. In his day holistic medicine was still suspect. Were he alive today, he would have shown considerable interest in healing plants.

My first personal encounter with the marvellous healing properties of Aloe vera was in 1989. Bob Geldof had relaunched himself as a singer, following years of association with Live Aid. I was working for his manager at the time. One of his first London concerts was at the Town and Country Club. The day of the concert saw him huddled in a corner, suffering from a heavy cold and a croaking voice. At 2 o’clock that afternoon I gave him a strong dose of Aloe vera, plus some bee propolis. He shouted his familiar expletive at the bitterness of the juice! That evening he was able to perform with only the very slightest hint of huskiness in his voice.

My second encounter with the healing properties of Aloe vera was later that year with an outstanding Englishwoman who stayed with me as my guest. She had lived for 18 years in a cave in India, meditating high in the Himalayas, and had now returned to Britain. Years of living in a cold cave and enduring snowy winters at 13,200 feet had taken their toll and she suffered seriously from arthritis, to the point where it was extremely painful for her to walk even a few hundred yards. Her English name was Diane Perry; her adopted Tibetan name on becoming a mendicant nun was Tenzin Palmo.

As she was in so much pain, I gave her Aloe vera juice regularly. After a couple of months her condition had considerably improved. I continued to send her bottles of Aloe vera at her request once she returned to Italy. Combined with a careful diet, she is now free from arthritic suffering. Where she was once hardly able to walk up the street, she now travels and lectures worldwide, leading a very active life.

A strange and synchronous event occurred while writing this book. Dr Maikov had sent me a book from Moscow in Russian on Aloe vera. I asked a Russian friend, Natasha Hull (née Vassilieva) to translate the book orally for me. When I mentioned Professor Filatow and his pioneering work on Aloe therapy in Russia, she leapt up in amazement. ‘You don’t mean the great Filatow. My grandmother was his favourite student!’ I am very grateful to Natasha for her invaluable help.

It is our wish that this book will prove useful and inspirational, and that people everywhere will be able to benefit from this truly remarkable plant.

Julia Lawless and Judith Allan

Hampstead, October 1999

Aloe Vera

THE PLANT OF IMMORTALITY

Introduction:

The Aloe is a medicine recommended by the most respected tradition, it is used and affirmed by the experience of all doctors of all ages.

Dictionnaire Encyclopédique des Sciences Médicales, Masson et Fils, Paris, 1865

The use of Aloe vera will be the most important single step forward in the treatment of diseases in the history of mankind.

Dr McDaniel MD, Chief of Pathology, Dallas-Fort Worth Medical Center, Texas

Aloe vera is a remarkable plant … one of a handful of traditional folk remedies renowned since ancient times as a ‘cure all’. It has been called by such evocative names as ‘Wand of Heaven’, ‘Miracle Worker’ and ‘Silent Healer’, while the ancient Egyptians referred to it as ‘The Plant of Immortality’. Indeed, one of the most outstanding qualities of Aloe vera is the versatile nature of its healing properties. Although it is best known today simply as a cosmetic ingredient, modern research is confirming the value of Aloe vera in the treatment of numerous disorders. These range from common complaints such as acne, eczema, indigestion and psoriasis to more serious medical conditions such as arthritis, ulcers, radiation burns, irritable bowel syndrome and even AIDS and cancer.

Aloe vera resembles a cactus with its characteristic spiky, fleshy leaves. In fact it is a perennial succulent belonging to the Aloaceae family. There are around 350 varieties of the Aloe plant, but the one with the best-known medicinal qualities is simply called Aloe vera, meaning the ‘true aloe’. There are also four or five other varieties which are commonly used in healing.

The distinctive appearance of the Aloe vera plant is depicted on Egyptian temple friezes as early as 4000 BC, while its first recorded therapeutic use has been traced to a Sumerian clay tablet dated at around 2000 BC.

Although the medical versatility of the plant was known to early civilizations, and its usage documented by such prominent physicians as Dioscorides, Pliny the Elder and Galen, it was only early in the 20th century that its healing potential began to be re-assessed in the light of newly emerging scientific evidence. During the 1930s, in the pioneering days of x-ray treatment, it was found that Aloe vera juice could bring prompt healing to burns caused by radiation. When all other remedies failed, it also brought relief to victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who were severely burned.

Its more general usage was made possible in the late 1940s when a method to stop the oxidation and deterioration of the active ingredients in the plant was discovered. Subsequent tests confirmed that pain and scarring caused by burns and wounds was greatly reduced, if not entirely eradicated, due to a ‘wound hormone’1 contained in Aloe vera. Nowadays, Aloe vera extracts are used extensively in burn ointments, suntan lotions and skin care products.

During the 1980s and 1990s, further clinical studies have demonstrated that, apart from its cosmetic and skin care applications, Aloe vera promotes rapid healing and is also very effective as a natural painkiller, antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, immuno-stimulant and general antiseptic agent.

Some remarkable case histories and personal experiences of the benefits of Aloe vera can be found among people from all walks of life … such accounts speak volumes about the healing capacity of this extraordinary plant.

Mahatma Gandhi drank Aloe vera juice every day. In a letter to his biographer, Romain Rolland, Gandhi wrote:

You ask me what were the secret forces that sustained me during my long fasts. Well, it was my unshakeable faith in God, my simple and frugal lifestyle, and the Aloe whose benefits I discovered upon my arrival in South Africa at the end of the 19th century.

In 1995, Lady Elizabeth Anson, cousin to Queen Elizabeth II and an inveterate party-giver, revealed that it was Aloe vera which had given her a new lease of life after suffering from the debilitating effects of ME for many years. She has set up a charity for ME sufferers which recommends Aloe, among other natural treatments, to fellow sufferers.

Princess Helena Moutafian MBE, Dame of the Order of St John and a well-known humanitarian, uses Aloe vera daily. She uses the juice for eczema on her hands and face and takes Aloe vera capsules internally for bowel irritation and any kind of infection. In her view:

…Aloe is one of the best things that God created.

Dr David Smallbone, MB, CHB, LRCP, MRCS, MFHOM, FCOH, is a doctor and surgeon who has been in private practice in Britain since the late 1970s. He has not written a prescription for the last 10 to 15 years and now uses virtually no allopathic medicine. He treats his patients with a variety of natural methods such as herbal medicine and homoeopathy. Regarding Aloe vera he says:

I have used Aloe vera in my practice over the years whenever I feel it to be necessary … it is such a wonderful plant.

Stephen Turoff, one of the most gifted healers in Britain today, recommends Aloe as a general tonic and says that it is especially valuable in treating digestive disorders. In his view:

Aloe vera is good for everything…

Botanical, Historical and Cultural Origins

PART ONE

The Aloe Vera Family Tree

ALOE VERA

Most sources place Aloe in the Lily family (Liliaceae). Until recently this was correct, but according to Dr Tom Reynolds of the Jodrell Laboratory, Kew Gardens, London, it has now been designated its own family, known as Aloaceae. Nonetheless, it is related to the lily family and to plants such as garlic, onion and asparagus, all of which are known to have medicinal properties.

The Royal Horticultural Society Gardeners’ Encylopaedia of Plants and Flowers defines Aloe as:

[A] Genus of evergreen, rosetted trees, shrubs, perennials and scandent climbers with succulent foliage and tubular to bell-shaped flowers.1

There are about 350 varieties of Aloe in the Aloaceae family. In South Africa alone, 132 species were recorded in 1955! They range from miniature aloes like Aloe aristata and Aloe brevifolia to small aloes such as Aloe striata, which is one of the prettiest of the species. Its leaves are pale green edged with light coral red and sometimes flushed with pink. The flowers are orange or pinky-red and roughly resemble a mass of coral. The flowers of different aloes vary in colour from cream or orange to scarlet, rose flame or spectacular autumn tints.

Among the large aloes are Aloe arborescens and Aloe ferox, both used for healing purposes. In the 19th century, James Backhouse, in A Narrative of a Visit to Mauritius and South Africa, refers to Aloe arborescens as a Tree-Aloe, otherwise known as ‘Kokerboom’ in the Afrikaans language. ‘Kokerboom’ means Quiver Tree, as it was used by the Bushmen to make quivers from its branches. Members of the Aloaceae family known for their medicinal properties include:

The origins of Aloe vera is not clearly known. Some writers claim it comes from southern Africa, others from northern Africa. One of the most authoritative botanical sources, Mr Nigel Hepper, retired senior botanist at Kew Gardens, has suggested that it may come from the Yemen. This has not been proven, but the Aloe vera plant has been found in the Yemen in remote places where it was clearly not transplanted from another region. It has also been found in Tenerife in mountainous areas. In the light of early Egyptian and Mesopotamian records, it most likely comes from either the Yemen or North Africa.

Aloe vera is a clump-forming, perennial succulent with basal rosettes of tapering, thick leaves, mottled green, later turning grey-green. It is a cactus-like plant with distinctive spiky leaves whose flower stems carry bell-shaped yellow flowers in summer. From the centre of the dark green leaves of the Aloe vera plant, the flower stems, which are leafless, can reach 1.5 m (3 ft) in length and have attractive tubular-shaped bells.

The Aloe vera plant is characterized by its long tapering sharp leaves with ribbed thorny ridges along the spine. The fleshy leaves grow in a spiral shape to form a rosette pattern. This rosette pattern is a distinctive feature of Aloe vera. The soft fleshy leaves of the Aloe vera exude a watery gel or juice when cut, and contain the plant’s two main medicinal products:

1 the sap from the rind, known as the exudate

2 the gel/juice, used extensively in healing.

The leaves themselves can also be dried and made into powder (for use in beauty products). All medical aloes, however, produce a typical bitter yellowish or reddish sap which is their common characteristic.

All Aloes are part of a larger genus called Xeroids, which implies an ability to ‘shut down’ the pores (or ‘stomata’, tiny openings in the epidermis of the leaf) to ensure that water is retained within the plant. In this way they can survive long periods without water. This same ability to close the stomata in the leaf also apparently facilitates the almost miraculous closing of any wound or damage to the outer skin of the plant. The power to heal itself so rapidly and re-grow in another direction doubtless pointed the way to its use as a wound treatment.

The Aloe vera plant takes about four years to mature, by which time the gel in the outer leaves is at its most potent. When fully grown the individual leaves can reach a height of 60 to 90 cm (2 to 3 ft) and each leaf can weigh approximately 1.5 to 2 kg (3 to 4 lb). Each plant usually has 12 to 16 leaves. As a perennial, Aloe vera lives for about 12 years. When the outer leaves are harvested, up to three times a year, the plant is able to close itself down against water loss. Within a few seconds of being cut, the plant films over the wound and a protective coating forms which stops loss of sap. The outer leaves are always harvested first, allowing the inner leaves time to develop their ripeness and potency.

Although Aloe is ideally suited to growing in hot, arid climates, it can be grown in glasshouses or indoors in Europe. As it is frost-sensitive it should always be kept in warm conditions, requiring a minimum temperature of 7–10°C (45–50°F). However, although frost can kill them, the plants seldom die simply from exposure to cold unless they are very young. Tree Aloes and shrubs with a spread over 30 cm (1 ft) prefer full sun; most smaller species require partial shade. The plant also requires very well-drained soil. Ideally, in warmer climates it likes sun for at least two hours a day, porous or sandy soil and exposure to the wind. The wind actually conditions and strengthens the thick meaty leaves.

The Aloe is easily propagated since at the base of the plant, suckers or ‘pups’ grow which can be separated to make new cuttings. Apart from their requirement for warmth, an Aloe vera plant is very easy to maintain as a house plant or conservatory specimen. Watering should be infrequent and less so during winter months. Like orchids, Aloes can be killed by too much care and water!

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