Aloe vera has been used for thousands of years for its health benefits and its full potential has yet to be discovered.
The first known written reference to the medicinal properties of aloe comes from clay tablets from the Mesopotamian civilisation in the 18th century BC, which describe its virtues as a laxative.
Three hundred years later we can find reference to it in the Book of Remedies, an Egyptian treatise on medicine from the 15th century BC, which details preparations based on aloe for the cure of skin conditions, headaches and as a laxative. It is believed that it was also used in the embalming process, which is why it was considered the plant of immortality and was planted around the pyramids.
In the classical Western world, the efficacy of aloe as a laxative and to treat bruises and wounds is described in detail in the book De Materia Medica, by the Greek Diocesus in the 1st century AD, a reference in botanical medicine, and in the Natural History of the Roman writer Pliny the Elder, other therapeutic uses are added, such as eliminating excess perspiration or treating ulcers, also in the 1st century AD.
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From the 6th century onwards, aloe was commonly used in India, Tibet and Sumatra, and was used in Ayurvedic medicine to purify the body and balance mind, body and spirit.
In China, Records of the known properties of aloe date back to the 7th century and describe it as highly effective for treating sinusitis and parasitosis, in addition to its dermatological applications.
In Africa The indigenous people used aloe gel to wash themselves, protecting the skin from ultraviolet radiation and preventing ageing. In addition, during hunting, the gel-impregnated skin prevented insect bites and quickly healed small wounds.
In America the aloe plant was of great value in the religious rites of many peoples of Mexico, especially the Mayan civilisation, who attributed protective and magical effects to it. Christopher Columbus mentions it several times in his logbooks, and after the discovery of America, it was the Jesuits who were responsible for extending its use for medical purposes.
The term aloe is derived from the Arabic word alloeh, "bitter and shiny substance".
It was the Arabs who later mastered the production of commercial extracts of the plant and spread its use in powder form throughout the Greco-Roman world, reaching as far as India and China.
During the Middle Ages, its cultivation spread throughout the Mediterranean arc as a consequence of the Arab invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, but it fell into disuse during the Renaissance, except for its purgative properties, probably because it was not cultivated in northern Europe and only arrived in the form of a highly degraded powder.
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It was not until the 1930s that aloe was rescued from oblivion thanks to the studies of Doctors Collins and Wright in the United States, who began to prove its effectiveness in the treatment of burns caused by X-rays.
From that moment on, other research works on its potential as a bactericide or for the treatment of gastric ulcers began to be published in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, although it was the USSR, during the communist regime, which carried out the greatest amount of research, with Dr Filatov's research on biostimulated aloe being the most important.
Today, aloe vera is experiencing a golden age thanks to the constant interest in natural therapies and products and the great profusion of products available to the consumer whose main component is aloe vera gel or juice.
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