Aloe Vera: the plant.
Aloe vera is one of those plants that we give as gifts, but how do you take care of it and use it correctly?
Named "Plant of immortality" by the ancient Egyptians, aloe vera is one of the resistant plants for those who do not have a green thumb.
If you forget to water, it will withstand a long period in dry soil.
As mentioned on the homepage as well as in many articles available on the internet, it has multiple health and beauty benefits.
It is thus used in the preparation of many natural remedies. Be careful, however, if you want to start making home care, because its fresh leaves can be dangerous.
Aloe vera is also a depolluting plant, especially with formaldehydes et benzenes. (these harmful substances in many cleaning products, paints, glues or textiles. Find many Forever Living products on shop Aloe Vera Forever.
A little bit of history
The generic name Aloe comes from the ancient Greek ἀλόη of Dravidian origin translated into Latin aloe.
Aloe vera is a perennial plant used since antiquity in Mesopotamia, in ancient Egypt and then in ancient Greece.
This plant whose juice was used in pharmacy was known to authors of Greco-Roman Antiquity such as Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides.
The specific epithet vera derives from the Latin vērus which means “true, authentic”.
The ancient Greeks were familiar with aloe even if the first mentions were late.
In -484 -425 BCE, the Greek historian Herodotus stated that the Egyptians used it to embalm corpses.
The oldest medical document, which is known as the Ebers papyrus, 1 BCE, lists aloe as one of the medicinal plants.
A 3rd century Greek document still in Egypt in Thebes, the Leiden papyrus, explained the use made of aloe vera.
This plant was actually used in different formulas recommended against worms, headaches, chest pains, burns, ulcers and skin diseases.
Aristotle would have encouraged his pupil Alexander the Great to install an Ionian colony in the island of Socotra off the coast of Yemen, to have access to the famous aloe vera cultures.
In the 1st century of our era, the Greek physician Dioscorides indicates that it is found in abundance in India from where it is exported.
It also grows in Arabia, Asia and in different maritime regions.
Several civilizations used it to close wounds and wounds by directly applying the crushed plant.
Aloe vera is not native to India or China.
Thus it is not mentioned in the oldest pharmacopoeias of these countries.
It is only after the 10th century that it becomes a common medicinal plant in China and the 12th century that it really enters the Ayurvedic pharmacopoeia.
In India, fundamental medical treatises therefore do not mention aloe vera.
Aloe vera only entered Ayurvedic medicine in the 12th century and since then aloe has figured in Ayurvedic medicine under the Sanskrit names kumāri.
The medicinal properties of the plant are mentioned in 13th century texts or Bhava Prakasha (a 15th century classic) which cites Aloe vera as a purgative, refreshing and bitter plant.
It was prescribed at the time for liver and spleen diseases, internal tumours, persistent coughs, and of course for skin diseases.
In China, contrary to what is very often found on the internet, in articles or pharmacy theses, the oldest Chinese work on materia medica (Shennong bencao jing) does not mention aloe vera.
It was not until the 18th century that it was imported by sea into the province of Canton and then dispersed throughout China.
The first mentions are in the Yaoxinglun and the Bencao Shiyi, two pharmacopoeias of the Tang dynasty (618-907).
By its mysterious origin, it was credited with marvelous properties. It was considered a panacea.
The Materia Medica of the Kaibao period (973) gives for the first time a detailed study of its properties: “cold, bitter, purges the intestines, evacuates the fire from the liver”.
From that time, aloe Vera became a medicinal plant fully assimilated to the Chinese pharmacopoeia.
Western Christians discovered the virtues of Aloe Vera during their crusades.
Indeed, their adversaries consider this plant as the remedy par excellence.
Aloe was then imported to North Africa and Spain, then to the West Indies and then to America in the 16th century.
The cultivation of Aloe vera spread very quickly in all tropical, subtropical and warm temperate zones.
Chistophe Colomb took him to heal and preserve sailors from disease, especially scurvy and the consequences of malnutrition. Aloe Vera was called the "pot doctor".
How to benefit from the benefits of Aloe Vera in our time?
Not easy to keep all the active ingredients of this plant.
Indeed, many components such as enzymes do not support most stabilization treatments used in food or cosmetics. (preservatives, sterilization, etc.)
The bet was to succeed in preserving the benefits of this plant in order to make them available throughout the world.
The first company to master such a process now has a presence in over 150 countries worldwide and has held a leading position in the production of aloe vera products for over 40 years.