Aloe Vera as a commercial product was not popular in the market until the 1970s, but did you know that people have been benefiting from Aloe Vera’s medicinal properties for four thousand years?
The very first record of the Aloe Vera plant in history was written by Dioscorides, a famous Greek physician from the first century AD.
He wrote that Aloe Vera had the power of “inducing sleep and of thickening the body…it helps loosen the belly and cleanses the stomach when drunk with warm milk or cold water.”
The rest of his writings included a detailed commentary on the many uses of Aloe Vera for ailments such as hemorrhoids, boils, and irritations of the gums and throat.
By the 2nd century AD, Aloe Vera had become indispensible to Roman physicians - the most notable of which was Galen, the personal physician of the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius.
Galen was said to have drawn his knowledge from the writings of Aristotle and Hippocrates, who had gotten their knowledge of Aloe Vera from the Indian and Egyptian “medical writers”.
Galen’s research on the plant would eventually spread to the Arab kingdom. Aloe Vera became widely used in the colder areas of Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period.
Knowledge of Aloe Vera as the “miracle plant” was passed down through folklore, and local people used the plant as a traditional remedy either by boiling it or using the gel from the leaf without any processes.
More stories about the potency of the Aloe Vera plant came from explorers Christopher Columbus and Marco Polo, who were reported to have used the plant during their respective voyages to the West Indies and China.
Meanwhile, in the East, Chinese physicians were already writing about how Aloe Vera helped treat sinusitis, skin disorders, and internal problems such as convulsions in children and worm fever.
During the massive exploration period in the fifteenth century, the leading maritime powers Spain, Holland, France, Portugal, and Britain brought Aloe Vera to the New World (as North America was called back then), Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
By then, European physicians had become experts in Aloe Vera’s healing properties through practical use and through studying the texts of Greek and Roman physicians.
The plant became very popular in Jamaica and the Caribbean, where the natives used the gel for topical problems (particularly sunburn), as a health tonic, and even as a shampoo.
From the 18th to 19th century, there seems to have been little mention of Aloe Vera in Western medical texts.
The theory behind this is that northern Europeans must have been ingesting the sap along with the gel, which is why the plant soon developed a reputation as a laxative instead of a remedy.
Another theory is that the stories of Aloe Vera as a miraculous plant led to an increase of demand from Europe. But there was one problem: Aloe Vera only grows in warm climates, which meant that the leaves had to be imported.
The imported leaves were not as effective as fresh Aloe leaves, nor did they know how to retain the plant’s purity, potency, and safety.
The seemingly magical properties of Aloe Vera seemed to be a myth, which is probably why its reputation faltered.
In the 1950s, however, the use of Aloe Vera was revived when consumers saw the need to return to nature for medicine as a protest against the monopoly of pharmaceutical companies.
Coincidentally, scientists finally discovered how to retain Aloe Vera’s purity and efficacy - protect the inner gel from the oxidation process, which is what drastically reduces its healing properties.
They worked on a process that would stabilize the inner gel and ensure that people could use it in its purest form.
Over the next decade, many processing techniques were tried but most of them failed.
The reason for that is because the whole leaf would be processed at once, resulting in the concentration of a high percentage of aloin, the bitter substance that works as a natural laxative.
The 1970s saw a scientific breakthrough in making fresh Aloe Vera available to anyone.
Using cold processing techniques and natural ingredients, scientists were able to find an effective way of separating the aloin from the inner gel and stabilizing the latter.
These techniques were patented and resulted in the development of a global, billion-dollar Aloe Vera industry.
As pure, high quality Aloe Vera products became available in the market, more and more doctors and scientists realized the true value of this simple plant and the significant contribution it can make to human health.
Despite Aloe Vera’s medicinal properties and rich, 4,000 year old history, the plant should not be regarded as a magical cure-all for illnesses.
Aloe Vera soothes, alleviates, and supplements, but it does not cure. And regularly taking Aloe Vera juice is the only way you can benefit from the plant as a treasure trove of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.
So make Aloe Vera an integral part of a healthier lifestyle today!
