Aloeride® aloe vera

Throughout the ages some foods have been considered more helpful than others. Helpful for their aroma, for their taste or their function. The earliest documented use of aloe vera goes back to 2100 BC Sumaria (Nippur clay tablets demonstrated that Sumerian physicians relied heavily on botanical sources and that aloe vera was among them) and 1552 BC Egypt (Ebers papyrus is amongst the most important medical papyri of Ancient Egypt and gave detailed discussion of aloe vera's food value).

The development of pharmacology in the Graeco-Roman world saw the number of medicinal plants recorded almost trebled between 400 BC (the Hippocratic writings) and AD 250 as the Greeks and Romans discovered more about the regions beyond the Mediterranean: Aulus Cornelius Celsus (25BC - AD25) wrote De Medicina (the first systematic treatise on medicine) which mentions aloe vera. Roman army surgeon Pedanius Dioscorides (AD40 - 90) wrote the Codex Vindobonensis Medicus Graecus (oldest and most valuable work in the history of botany and pharmacology) in which he gave detailed description of aloe vera in respect of digestion (mouth irritations, laxative, haemorrhoids) and skin (boils, healing of bruises and wounds). Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD23-79), author of Historia Naturalis, physician, philosopher and army commander repeated the findings of Dioscorides that aloe vera was used for inflammation/fever (checks perspiration) and wound healing (heals leprous sores).

In the olden days people only had the option to use aloe vera plants as a whole (i.e. with laxative molecules aplenty) hence the great many references to aloe's purgative effect (from Middles Ages to the height of fashion in Victorian times). In our time however, every aloe vera product manufacturer has the choice to remove these purgatives and preserve aloe's nutrient molecules. The snag is that disparagingly few aloe vera product manufacturers in this respect make the choice that would be in your best interest (borne out by independent laboratory tests). And you'd never know from their labels, so it is Caveat emptor yet again.