The miracle herb Aloe Vera is one of the real boons gifted by nature to human beings. One of the oldest known plants, it has been used in several millennia for various health and beauty purposes. Greeks, Egyptians, Indians, Mexicans, Japanese, Chinese, all loved to use the plant alike. Where Christopher Columbus and Alexander the Great used Aloe Vera to treat their soldier’s wound, beauty legends and Egyptian queens like Cleopatra and Nefertiti used it as a part of their regular beauty regimes.

A brief introduction of Aloe Vera- The plant derives it’s name “Aloe” from Arabic word “Alloeh” which means bitter, where as “Vera” in Latin means “true or genuine”. Due to it’s area of origin, plant is also referred as “Lily of desert” and due to it`s magical healing potency, it is called “the plant of immortality”, “Wand of Heaven” and the “First Aid plant”. In ancient Greece it was regarded as universal panacea. The very first reference to Aloe Vera in English was given by John Good yew in A.D. 1655 in a book that he translated from any other language. Although the species was described as “Aloe Vera” by Nicolas Laurens Burman in 1768 in his book “Flora Indica”. In India it is found mainly in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and TamilNadu. It`s various common Indian names are – Hindi: Guarpatha, Ghikanvar, Sanskrit: Gritakumari, kumari, Malayalam: Kumari, Marathi: Korphod, Tamil: Chirukuttali, Telugu: Chinna Kalabanda, Oriya: Kumari, Canarese: Lolisara etc. Aloe Vera is a stem less or very short stemmed succulent plant that probably originated in African countries and gradually spread in tropical and sub tropical regions world wide, where weather conditions were not chilling. Today there are around 250 species of Aloe Vera found world wide, but only 4 or 5 are commonly used in medicines. The most common of them is Aloe Babandensis. Aloe Vera spreads by offsets and root sprouts. It`s leaves are green or gray-green, flashy, and thick with a serrated margin. Some varieties show white flecks on the upper and lower stem surface. The plant produces yellow flowers in summer which grows on a spike up to 90cm tall. Each leaf of Aloe Vera is made of three layers- (1) inner clear gel containing 99% of water, rest of this layer contains glucommannas, amino acids, lipids, sterols and vitamins. (2) Middle layer of latex which is bitter and contains anthraquinones and glycosides. (3) The outer thick layer or rind which synthesizes carbohydrates and proteins.