logs of 1492, there is some doubt as to what plant Columbus was referring. In fact it is more likely he was carrying the Agave plant, which has also been used for healing purposes and which is easily mistaken for Aloe vera by the uninitiated. At that period Aloe vera was not known to exist in Northern America except in Florida, Texas and California. There are, however, other records which suggest that Columbus documented the presence of Aloe in Cuba and other Caribbean islands.
Ponce de Leon, the 15th-century Spanish explorer, went to America in search of ‘the fountain of youth’. The native Seminole people of Florida showed him Aloe and its many uses, including its benefits as a digestive aid, hair-restorer and life-giving tonic. According to the native Americans, the elixir of long life resided in a pool in the middle of a cluster of Aloe vera leaves!
An Aloe by Any Other Name…
Aloe is known throughout many cultures by different poetic names, many of which reflect its legendary association with immortality. The origin of the word is generally traced to the Arabic word ‘alloeh’ which means ‘bitter and shiny substance’. There are other possible sources, but this seems to be the most plausible. As the ancients used either the sap or the ground leaf, in both instances the result is a shiny and bitter substance. In Hebrew it is referred to as ‘halal’ (or ‘allal – bitter) which means ‘shiny bitter substance’, as does the Syrian name for it, ‘alwai’. In ancient Hebrew it was called ‘ahaloth’.
The ancient Chinese considered the plant to have major therapeutic qualities and called it the ‘Harmonic Remedy’. In 9th-century China, the leaves were said to look like the ‘tail of a giant crab’. Chinese Materia Medica refer to Aloe vera either as Aloe chinensis or Aloe vulgaris. Knowledge of the plant seemed to be predominantly in the province of Canton, as it entered China through the trading port of Canton. It was ‘much used in the worm-fever and convulsions of children’ and for skin infections, mixed with liquorice.2 The Chinese referred to the plant as having come from Persia, Java and Sumatra. In 1985, in a contemporary Chinese herbal, Him-che Yeung refers to Aloe vera as having anti-cancer properties, anti-fungal and anti-parasitic properties as well as it being a purgative and wound healer.
In Ayurvedic medicine Aloe vera is known as ‘Ghrita-Kumari’: ‘Kumari’ means a young girl, virgin or a maiden, and Aloe was so-called because it brings about the renewal of female energy and imparts the energy of youth. In Ayurvedic medicine, the gel is used as one of the most important tonics for the female reproductive system, the liver and for regulating fire. The gel can be used for premenstrual tension, regulating menstrual flow, menopause and for women who have had hysterectomies. In Ayurveda, it is considered good for all three ‘humours’ or ‘constitutional types’: Vata (characterized by nervousness and sensitivity), Pitta (fiery), and Kapha (steady, regular, prone to sluggishness).
The Arabs called it the ‘Desert Lily’. The Knights Templar, who drank a heady mixture of palm wine, aloe pulp and hemp, called it the ‘Elixir of Jerusalem’, attributing their longevity and health to it.
In Japan Aloe vera is popularly called ‘No Need of a Doctor’; in Java it is known as ‘Crocodile’s Tongue’, and in Malaysia as ‘Mother-in-law’s tongue’ – no doubt referring to its bitter taste and the pointed sharp leaves! Infinitely more poetic is ‘The Wand of Heaven’ as it was known in Egypt. Elsewhere it has been called ‘Heaven’s blessing plant’, the ‘Mystical plant’ or ‘Miracle plant’, the ‘Magic medicine plant’ and the ‘Flow of Life’. It is more accurately known as the ‘Burn plant’ in current terminology or the ‘First Aid plant’, ‘Wound-healing plant’ and ‘Man’s natural medicine chest’. In contemporary America it is known as ‘the Silent Healer’.
Like the Egyptians, the native Seminole people of Florida, and native Mexicans, call Aloe vera the ‘Plant of Immortality’. The Russians echo the ancient Egyptians’ praise of Aloe vera by calling it the ‘Elixir of Longevity’. So revered and beloved has this plant been throughout different cultures and periods in our history that the list of names goes on and on, all praising Aloe vera’s qualities in a practical or poetic fashion.
The Elixir of Longevity
The claim to Aloe being an aid to longevity was borne out by an extraordinary Frenchman in the last century, a philosopher and a practitioner of medicine, a man administering to the poor in the belief that medicines should not be prohibitive, nor health the privilege of the rich:
During the 20 years that I have been treating my patients with Aloe, I have found that there are many diseases described by the doctors of antiquity which disappear rapidly when I administer Aloe in the form of granules or powder. Therefore, the good results which I have always obtained allow me to quote the adage of Roger Bacon: ‘Do you wish to live as long as Noah? Then take some pills of Aloah!’3
François Vincent Raspail (1794–1878)
In a more profound sense, Aloe vera’s symbolic association with long life and immortality, its association with embalming and the transition between one life and the next, may lie in the renewing nature of the plant itself. J Norris in the Garden Journal (New York Botanical Garden, 1973) wrote:
If a plant is able to heal its own wounds, to survive without nourishment, even seemingly to return from the dead, might not its power somehow be applicable to man’s own maladies?4
ALOE VERA
Aloe has appeared in all the most advanced Materia Medica of the great ancient civilizations: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Greece, Rome as well as in China and India. These civilizations were trustees of knowledge concerning the healing powers of Aloe vera, a knowledge which they passed on to their successors living around the Mediterranean region and subsequently to the whole of the Western world. They in turn traded with Africa, where the majority of Aloes have originated: thus the story of Aloe goes full circle…
Africa is the source of many varieties of the Aloe plant, and so it is natural that it features strongly in the ethnographic lore of both the North and South. A number of tribal uses for the plant have been documented, and anthropologists report on the widespread use of Aloe among the tribes of southern Africa – the Zulus, the Sutos and the Xhosa being the best known. The Aloes used vary regionally and are not popularly known except for Aloe ferox; Aloe macracantha; Aloe tenuior Haw., Aloe marlothii A. Berg and Aloe variegata L., are among those that have been used traditionally.
The Sutos tribes use Aloe as a natural antiseptic. When colds or influenza become a threatening epidemic, a public bath infused with Aloe is taken by the villagers. The plant is used as protection against lightning, by sprinkling burnt, crushed and boiled bits of the plant around the village. Barren Suto women drink a concoction from Aloe juice to aid their fertility. Nor is its use limited to tribe-members alone. If their animals are wounded, ash from the burnt leaves of Aloe is placed on the ground beneath the injured limb to hasten healing.
The fresh juice from the Aloe leaf is used by the Sutos, Zulus and Xhosa to treat eye infections, applied directly to the eye. In the Transvaal, an Aloe variegata infusion in brandy is used to treat haemorrhoids.
The Zulu women in South Africa use Aloe to help wean their babies, by spreading the bitter gel on their breasts. A decoction of the Aloe arborescens leaf is given to Zulu women just before they give birth, to aid the birth process. (In the Transvaal, a vinous extract of Aloe sp. is used for abortive purposes). The Zulus also use the plant, steeped in water, as an enema to clean out the intestines. Even the flowers
