Studies in rats suggest that a gel extracted from the aloe plant may help prevent disease and extend life-spans. Although many Americans use aloe-based skin creams, Dr. Jeremiah Herlihy, associate professor of physiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, points out that "people worldwide use it for medicinal purposes... (and) we wanted to begin to document what the effects actually are." To do that, Herlihy and other researchers tracked the diets of 360 rats over the course of their respective life-spans. Some of the rats were fed a diet of rat food mixed with 1% dried aloe gel, extracted from the Aloe barbadensis plant. Some were fed unadulterated rat food, but received aloe gel in their water supply. Others ate a normal, aloe gel-free diet. Pathologist Dr. Yuji Ikeno performed autopsies on all the rats after their deaths, and discovered that the advancement of kidney disease, common to rats at the end of their life-span, was "reduced" in the aloe gel-eaters when compared with rats who were not fed the aloe gel.
He also found that aloe gel-eating rats displayed reduced rates of heart muscle disease, clot formation in the chambers of the heart, and cancer.
"Multiple causes of death were reduced, suggesting that the disease burden was lighter in the aloe-fed rats," Ikeno said.
This news may come as little surprise to believers in 'traditional' or 'folk' medicine. Herlihy acknowledges that "people worldwide use (aloe gel) for medicinal purposes including burns, digestion, and as a cathartic (laxative)." While people in the affluent West may think of aloe gel as a dermatological aid, Herlihy says, "more people in the world take the (extracted) gel internally than use it as a skin treatment."
But a note of caution: Dr. Ernest DeMarie, curator of desert plants at the New York Botanical Garden doesn't encourage people to start eating aloe, or drinking tea made from the plant. "At least one African species of aloe is toxic when an infusion is made from it," he explained. "If the study has merit,... then they will probably identify the active principle ingredient and make a pill form of it. That would be a lot safer."
The secrets to aloe's benefits to health are complex and still unfolding. "Aloe gel has many active ingredients," says study director Dr. Byung Pal Yu, "only two of which -- an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory agent -- have been identified."
His team plan more studies into the plant's medicinal powers. "We still need to determine the optimum dose of (extracted aloe gel) and identify the active ingredients responsible for the observed benefits," Yu explained.
NOTE:
Regarding Dr Ernest DeMarie's comments about the possible toxic effects of making infusions from Aloe leaves, it is worth noting that the researchers mention in their summary that they were using extract from the Aloe Barbadensis Miller plant in their experiments, and this is not a toxic variety. In fact, this is the variety grown, harvested, stabilized, bottled and distributed by Forever Living Products in Arizona.
Edited by Jane Davis
AloeVera Company UK
July 1, 1997