It's time to take a closer look at aloe vera.
Ouch - get the aloe! If you've ever burned yourself while cooking, barbecuing, ironing, or stoking a fire, you may be familiar with the soothing qualities of the aloe plant. But you may not be aware of its wider medicinal properties. The gel of this succulent perennial herb - which eases the pain of minor burns and such other skin irritations as sunburn, insect bites, and rashes caused by poison ivy and poison oak - has also been found to accelerate the body's entire healing process, relieving ailments ranging from allergies to digestive disorders. No wonder the aloe plant sitting on the kitchen windowsill has served as a favorite home remedy for centuries.
Aloe vera has amassed its share of folklore over the millennia. Egyptian wall carvings from the fourth millennium B.C. depict it as "the plant of immortality": Apparently it numbered among the traditional funerary gifts for the Pharaohs. The Egyptian Book of Remedies, which dates to around 1500 B.C., describes aloe's value as a skin tonic and also as a laxative when combined with other herbs. Dioscorides, a Greek physician and pharmacologist who traveled with the Roman armies serving under the emperor Nero nearly 2,000 years ago, recorded aloe's healing properties in his De materia medica, the standard Western medical text until the Renaissance. He recommended the use of aloe gel to heal skin blemishes, treat wounds, cure hemorrhoids - even stop hair loss. And the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder, writing in A.D. 77, again credited aloe principally for its laxative qualities.
Ninety-Nine Percent Water
Native to Africa, the 325-odd species of aloe are members of the lily family, which makes asparagus, garlic, and onion aloe …
