Herbal history and empiricism it seems will lose their validity and become illegal... by 2011 legislation will come into effect that makes it an offence to tell you what aloe vera has been used for throughout the ages. Because nothing is medicinally true anymore unless it has passed double blind randomised controlled trials (cost £2M upwards for a statistically insignificant one!).

Phase I, IIA/B, III, (IV) clinical trials are nowadays hailed as the gold standard to prove that a medicinal substance works and is safe. Vioxx, Baycol, Fen-Phen, Prempro, Rezulin, Zyprexa, Paxil, Zoloft, Risperdal, Avandia (rosiglitazone) show just how badly clinical trials can fail the public. To put this into further perspective, in every day clinical practice the prescription of multiple drugs for a patient is never based on clinical trials for there are no polypharmacy trials. The concurrent use of many different medicines by the same person can result in a gradual accumulation of side effects... which is where scientific clinical trials become dependent on knowledgable experience (If More Than Three, Ask the Pharmacy).

Next to clinical trials there is experience. When a remedial substance has recorded use from well before Christ (BC) right to this very day and throughout all Continents, then it is clear what value was and is placed on it. This substance is of course aloe vera. Next to a most impressive timeline and worldwide geographical usage, aloe vera has enjoyed a vast amount of proper research. It is important to note that aloe vera has a practical application, it is not a theory, a belief or a dogma. Thanks to modern science we understand why good aloe vera works and within Aloeride® aloe vera reaches the pinnacle of how this can be best delivered to you.

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 medicinal 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). The list of recorded usage of aloe vera throughout the ages goes on and on.

N.B. Han van de Braak was asked if Aloeride® could be used for a pilot project crossover trial with wash-out period on children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD); unfortunately this study didn't get off the ground.