About Aloe vera, a medicinal herb that has been used for several thousand years in traditional Indian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman medicine. In biblical times, the Egyptians called it the 'plant of immortality' and the Chinese the 'elixir of youth'.

Pros

Aloe vera juice has been evaluated for its antioxidant potential and this study demonstrated a significant presence of antioxidants in aloe extracts. At 3 years of plant life, the plant extract has the strongest free radical scavenging activity of 72.19%, which is significantly higher than BHT with 70.52% and alpha-tocopherol with 65.65% (1).

Aloe vera juice also has antibacterial properties against Gram-positive bacteria (2).

Aloe barbadensis (studies on laboratory animals) can normalise oxidative stress and can be used as an effective nephroprotective agent against drug-induced nephrotoxicity (3).

The polysaccharide component of aloe gel from selected species has a dehydrating effect on the skin after multiple applications. Both Aloe vera and Aloe ferox gel have shown good potential to reduce erythema on the skin, similar to that of hydrocortisone gel (4).

Oral supplementation with high molecular weight Aloe Vera could be useful in relieving fibrosis and inflammation in patients with liver fibrosis (5).

Effective in the treatment of wounds (6).

Pretreatment with Aloe polysaccharides may attenuate cerebral ischaemia by inhibiting the systemic inflammatory response, leucocyte aggregation and lipid peroxidation in the brain (7).

Cons

As with many other popular drugs, the efficacy of Aloe vera remains controversial and its safety as a dietary supplement uncertain. A 13-week toxicity study was conducted on laboratory animals and concluded that long-term exposure of rats to Aloe vera whole leaf extract induced damage to the intestinal tract (8).

To the knowledge of these physicians, this is the first case of toxic hepatitis that can be attributed to an Aloe vera preparation. A 57-year-old patient with no pre-existing liver disease started taking tablets containing 500 mg of an Aloe barbadensis extract about 4 weeks before admission (9).

References______________________________________________________________________

(1) Hu Y, Xu J, Hu Q. Evaluation of antioxidant potential of aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis miller) extracts. J Agric Food Chem. 2003 Dec 17;51(26):7788-91. doi: 10.1021/jf034255i.

(2) Alemdar S, Agaoglu S. Investigations of in-vitro antimicrobial activity of aloe vera juice. J Anim Vet Adv. 2009;8(1):99–102.

(3) Iftkhar A, Hasan IJ, Sarfraz M, Jafri L, Ashraf MA. Nephroprotective Effect of the Leaves of Aloe barbadensis (Aloe Vera) against Toxicity Induced by Diclofenac Sodium in Albino Rabbits. West Indian Med J. 2015 Dec;64(5):462-467. doi: 10.7727/wimj.2016.052. 

(4) Fox LT, du Plessis J, Gerber M, van Zyl S, Boneschans B, Hamman JH. In Vivo skin hydration and anti-erythema effects of Aloe vera, Aloe ferox and Aloe marlothii gel materials after single and multiple applications. Pharmacogn Mag. 2014 Apr;10(Suppl 2):S392-403. doi: 10.4103/0973-1296.133291.

(5) Hegazy SK, El-Bedewy M, Yagi A. Antifibrotic effect of aloe vera in viral infection-induced hepatic periportal fibrosis. World J Gastroenterol. 2012 May 7;18(17):2026-34. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v18.i17.2026. 

(6) Liu C, Leung MY, Koon JC, Zhu LF, Hui YZ, Yu B, Fung KP. Macrophage activation by polysaccharide biological response modifier isolated from Aloe vera L. var. chinensis (Haw.) Berg. Int Immunopharmacol. 2006 Nov;6(11):1634-41. doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2006.04.013.

(7) Liu Z., Ge X., Lu Y., Dong S., Zhao Y., Zeng M. Effects of chitosan molecular weight and degree of deacetylation on the properties of gelatine-based films. Food Hydrocolloids. 2012;26:311–317.

(8) Boudreau MD, Mellick PW, Olson GR, Felton RP, Thorn BT, Beland FA. Clear evidence of carcinogenic activity by a whole-leaf extract of Aloe barbadensis miller (aloe vera) in F344/N rats. Toxicol Sci. 2013 Jan;131(1):26-39. doi: 10.1093/toxsci/kfs275. 

(9) Rabe C, Musch A, Schirmacher P, Kruis W, Hoffmann R. Acute hepatitis induced by an Aloe vera preparation: a case report. World J Gastroenterol. 2005 Jan 14;11(2):303-4. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v11.i2.303.