Garden Pharmacy – Aloe Vera

My skin is trashed. A lifetime of living under a hole in the ozone layer and working outdoors. When we were kids, there was a competition in the first days back to school after summer holidays to see who could peel off the biggest sheet of skin. I’ve got smarter since then – I haven’t had that kind of sunburn for a long time now, and I’ve largely managed to keep my kids (even the redheaded one) from ever getting properly sunburned – but there’s a lot of damage to be undone.

So it was a very nice outcome from this bit of research that aloe vera actually does work to repair sun damage “stimulating hyaluronic acid and collagen production” – which is what the labels on expensive little bottles of cosmetic serums say too. I think I need to plant more.

Though I wouldn’t trust it if I had a suspicious skin cancer, there is even some evidence that the aloe-emodin in aloe vera might deal with potential skin cancers before I even know about them, inhibiting cancerous growth in skin cells.

Aloe vera has long been my go-to for burns including sunburn and there’s good evidence that it does help cool and reduce the pain of a burn, and help it heal without scarring. It protects the burned area from infection by being antimicrobial, it covers the burnt area with a protective film and it stimulates “rapid tissue epithelialization and granulation” – which means new skin. In the same way, it also works to prevent development of pressure ulcers – used to be called bed sores – in people who need to be immobile.

Aloe vera gel has a couple of other very nice medicinal uses too. It works as an antiviral applied to cold sores, and it works very well as a mouthwash to heal gums from dental work like wisdom tooth extraction, gingivitis or peridontal disease.

There’s a whole lot of research about other medicinal uses too, but they all involve taking it as a capsule or drink, and there’s enough of a suggestion that some compounds in it could be nasty if taken internally, that I’m not going there without supervision from someone who actually knows what they are doing. Oral consumption has been linked to acute hepatitis in people, and to gastrointestinal cancer in rats and mice.

It looks like it is the bitter yellow latex that you see along the margin of the leaf that contains most of the problem compounds (anthraquinones, which are suspected of cytotoxicity, mutagenicity, and carcinogenicity). If you stick to the clear gel, and external use, or mouthwash you spit out, it looks like you are safe.

There’s a review of toxicity and adverse clinical effects at https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC6349368&blobtype=pdf

Aloe barbadensis Miller, Family Asphodelaceae (Liliaceae), Aloe vera

Aloe vera is a perennial succulent that can grow quite large, and can sucker and spread. It’s not hard to remove, so I don’t see it as invasive, but it can take over a corner of the garden. It’s native to hot dry parts of the world and it won’t cope with waterlogging, but it can be grown in temperate or even cold climates if it’s protected from frost. It grows fastest in full sun but will survive even as an indoor plant so long as it gets a decent amount of light and it’s not overwatered. If you are making up a potting mix, make it more free draining than usual (eg with extra coarse sand). Propagate by separating out the pups that grow from the base of the parent plant. Harvest by cutting a leaf off, cutting off the serrated edges that contain the yelllow latex, and peeling to get to the gel.

There’s a good review that covers most of the medicinal use research I found at https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/25/6/1324

You will find the rest of this series by clicking the tag Medicinals.

So that’s number four in this series of the basic garden pharmaceuticals kit. Chamomile, lemon balm, turmeric, aloe vera. Which one next?