while another Bushman lies prostrate below a floating aloe. Two other Bushmen are shown hunting with large dominant buck, possibly antelope, behind them. This suggests that Aloes were an integral part of life and nourishment in the Bush, as important as hunting for survival. The juice of Aloe saponaria is still used by hunters in the Congo, in Central Africa, who smear their body with it before the hunt. The bitter smell of the Aloe juice masks the hunter’s smell and blocks perspiration, thus making the hunter more invisible to his prey. Aloe saponaria is also used in Southern Africa for healing battle or hunting wounds.
In the 9th century AD, Al-Kindi of Baghdad wrote The Medical Formulary, also known as ‘the Aqrabadhin of Al-Kindi’. Al-Kindi was known as the ‘philosopher of Arabia’. In The Medical Formulary he makes several references to the use of Aloe, particularly in relation to eye treatments. In all remedies, Aloe is mixed with other ingredients – for example, gold, red hematite and saffron, or myrrh and saffron along with soapwort, sweet marjoram and lycium juice – then pulverized and kneaded and made into pills. When required, the pills are dissolved in woman’s milk and oil of violet before being used. His remedies nearly always end with ‘It is good and effective with God’s help.’4
Al-Kindi records that the Arabs called Aloe vera sabir or sabr, while the Syrians called the plant sabhra or sebara. There is a valley in Lebanon known as the Sabhra Valley, which translates as the Valley of the Aloes. The two languages are similar and the meaning is the same in all cases – ‘bitter and shiny substance’. Aloe was, as ever, a well known purgative, but Al-Kindi also noted its anti-inflammatory action, its effective opthalmological uses (such as its effectiveness with eye ulcers) and its positive action as regarded melancholia. It was also helpful with dyspnoea or difficult breathing. As a purgative drug, Aloe was treated with caution. Aloe was also being used throughout the Middle East: in the lands around the Red Sea, Aloe latifolia was believed to cure both ringworm and impetigal infections.
A note of caution came from the mediaeval medical writer Mesue of Damascus, who gave a rather graphic report of side-effects which even included piles. One lurid story concerned Emperor Otto II, who took too much Aloe and died in AD 983.5
It is generally held that it was Arab traders who first brought Aloe vera to Persia and India about the 6th century BC. According to Chopra’s ‘Indigenous Drugs of India’, Aloe was already widely used in India during Hippocrates’ lifetime (460–375 BC), and its medicinal uses dated ‘back to the 4th century BC’.6 Early medical texts from India indicate its use for skin inflammations. A Portugese naturalist, Garcia da Orta, later described the Hindus using Aloe vera for ‘purgatives, in kidney disease, colic, and also for healing wounds’, including the treatment of eye sores.7 Aloe vera still plays an important role in the traditional medicine of India, where Aloe vera preparations are particularly important for their cathartic (purgative or laxative), stomachic (digestive), emmenagogic (aiding in menstruation) and anthelmintic (expelling intestinal worms) properties. In addition, Aloe vera gel is considered one of the most important tonics for the female reproductive system, the liver, heart and spleen.
From India, the use of Aloe vera probably spread to Java, Malaysia, Sumatra and to the rest of the East Indies. In Java it was applied as skin care on infections, sunburn and blisters, while Aloe barbadensis was taken internally for gonorrheal infections. In addition it was used internally for tuberculosis in much the same way as it was in Europe: as a popular cure for consumption. In Malaya, Aloe vera pulp was bound onto the forehead to relieve headaches; in the Philippines it was used to reduce swelling (oedema) in beri-beri sufferers. As in Europe, when mixed with wine it was considered effective in preventing hair loss. In the East Indies there are reports that Aloe vera was popular for treating conditions such as gout, or aches and pains in the joints and bones.
The same conditions were traditionally treated with Aloe in the Caribbean. It was used for skin care and to treat problems such as cuts, blisters, wounds and insect bites. Its use in internal ailments appears to have been taught by the missionaries and explorers. In the Caribbean today it is still used for both human and animal ailments. Apparently the leaf is sucked as though it were sugar cane! Aloe vera juice, fed to horses, makes the horses’ blood so bitter that ticks apparently fall off after the first bite! It is also used for delousing, repelling infestations and as a life-giving tonic during cattle birth trauma.
From India and the East Indies, the use of Aloe spread into the Canton province in China. No doubt it was also brought to China by Arab traders. Chinese medical texts refer to Aloe from the 7th century AD onwards; the first noted use was for healing dermatitis. Aloe vera was especially noted for its use as a treatment for sinusitis and worm fever, as well as for convulsions in children and skin afflictions such as eczema.
The Venetian Marco Polo, travelling through China in the 13th century, found Aloe vera was used to treat rashes and other skin disorders, as well as for stomach ailments. Today, although Aloe chinensis is one of the best known regional variations of the healing Aloes, Aloe arborescens is used to treat burns in China and Russia. In addition, Aloe arborescens has been used in Japan as a folk remedy for burns, insect bites, wound-healing, athlete’s foot and digestive complaints. In his Il Milione, Polo documents Aloe’s history and legend, tracing its development and usage from the Island of Socotra through to the Orient, via the great Eastern trading routes.
Wound-healer
Aloe vera’s use as a wound-healer and for general skin treatment is perhaps its most universally acclaimed virtue among many diverse and distant ethnic groups. In northern Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, Aloe vera, known as savila, grows profusely and is used to heal skin diseases. In Mexico the leaves are gathered in the semi-wild to treat burns, bruises, skin irritations and even leprosy. In Florida, Aloe vera is widespread and has been used traditionally for treating jelly-fish stings as well as bee stings. Mayan women in the Yucatan region of Mexico have used Aloe vera for centuries to moisturize their skin. Like the Zulus in southern Africa, they also use it to wean their children from breast-feeding.
Throughout Central and South America, the pulp of Aloe vera is regarded as a mild laxative; another one of its earliest and most common uses worldwide. Indeed, the early Arabs’ principal use of the drug Aloes was as a laxative, although other uses were suggested in Persian records of the 6th century BC. They were using it both internally and externally, and processed the plant by separating the gel and sap from the rind using their bare feet. The resulting pulp was placed in goatskin bags and dried in the sun before the contents were ground into powder. Still today Aloe is called the ‘Desert Lily’ by the Bedouin tribes and the Tuareg of the Sahara Desert.
ALOE VERA
A Sumerian clay tablet, found in the city of Nippur in Mesopotamia and dating from around 2,000 BC, includes Aloe in its list of useful healing plants. This is the earliest recorded pharmaceutical use of Aloe and predates the written Egyptian records, which are commonly cited as being the first known source of Aloe vera and its medicinal uses.
Around 1500 BC, during the reign of the Pharaoh Amen-Hotep I, the Egyptians gave us the first detailed analysis of Aloe’s medical value in the Papyrus Ebers.1 This was named after the German Egyptologist Georg Ebers who, together with a wealthy German called Herr Gunther, bought it in the winter of 1872 from an Egyptian who had found it in 1858 between the knees of a mummy in a tomb at El Assassif, near Thebes. The Papyrus Ebers was given intact to the University of Leipzig, where it remains to this day in almost perfect condition.
The Papyrus Ebers is not so much a coherent text as a collection of medical documents and folklore on the causes and treatments of diseases and the correct religious rites to accompany them. Ebers considered the book to be one of the ‘Hermetic Books’ of the ancient Egyptians. It is the earliest known complete papyrus extant, and is extremely detailed. In fact it is a miscellaneous collection compiled from at least 40 different sources. Some of the material is much