Skip to main content

How I use herbs - Aloe Vera

I want to write about Aloe Vera next in my herb series because its the one herb that I have potted up and taken to my unit in the city in case I need it during the week.

Aloe on the garden
Aloe Vera syn. A. barbadensis is a member of the Liliaceae family and originated from Northern Africa. In my garden I grow an aloe that I thought was aloe vera, but having read the descriptions in Isabell Shipard's book I think I actually have Aloe perryi, which has similar properties.  The aloe perryi has orange flowers, whereas aloe vera has yellow, and I know mine is a bright orange, so that confirms it.  Whether you grow aloe vera or aloe perryi, the growing conditions and applications are the same, so I'll just refer to them both as "aloe".

How does Aloe Vera grow?
Aloe is a succulent that multiplies by forming small plants called a "pup" at the base of the adult plants. It is easily propagated by digging up a pup and replanting it, that's how I started one in a pot to take with me. Aloe vera prefers shade and moist conditions. At first I assumed that it was a desert plant and I put it in a sunny corner, but it is doing much better now that I’ve added a hessian sack for shade. Occasionally it puts up a bright orange flower.

What’s Aloe Vera good for?
The aloe leaf consists of two parts, the yellow sap and the clear gel in the centre.  The sap is astrigent and bitter, so it can be used a laxative.  The gel is calming and cooling and has strong healing properties.

Some people eat or juice the aloe gel or the sap, but I haven’t used it for this purpose. I find aloe vera gel particularly effective for skin conditions, it is very calming on burns, insect bites and eczema. I even used it to remove a wart on my finger when I was at school, I just kept putting aloe vera on the wart and covering it with a plaster for weeks and eventually the wart disappeared.  It is the aloectin B compound in the gel that stimulates the immune system to accelerate healing.

Aloe vera is also useful for making a brew for the garden. I have been trying to expand my aloe vera patch so that I have excess to use for brewing.  There's more information here, I haven't tried it yet to be able to report the results.

Have you used aloe (vera or perryi) on your skin? to eat? in the garden?  elsewhere?

Simple Saturdays Blog Hop
Homestead Barnhop

Comments

  1. Absolutely and recommend the gel for burns. No scarring at all. Its a wonderful healer and i plaster it on sunburn.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I cut a piece of leaf to rub the gel onto grazes, small cuts and burns, especially on the grandchildren. I rarely need to use a plaster as the gel forms a sort of fine film over the wound.
    I keep a plant in the bathroom and one in the kitchen as it is not warm enough to grow the plant successfully outside.
    Gill

    ReplyDelete
  3. My aloe vera grows like mad and I once started getting some of the gel and adding it to drinks - it is pretty flavourless. Havnt done that for a while. It is excellent for burns.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've used aloe vera on burns, particularly sunburn. But I have never thought to use it on my son's eczema. I've got to try that. Thanks for the suggestion!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've never eaten it, but I have used it on burns before. My grandma always had several aloe vera plants and would give me some for any kind of burn or sunburn. It is a great plant to have around!

    PS - Thanks so much for the comment on my blog today. I appreciate it :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Liz, how fantastic you can grow it outside! I have to grow in pots so I can move indoors during winter. Love it for burns or other skin conditions, also fever blisters! I have gotten the juice and can report it has a laxative effect. Just in case anybody wants to know!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks, I appreciate all your comments, suggestions and questions, but I don't always get time to reply right away. If you need me to reply personally to a question, please leave your email address in the comment or in your profile, or email me directly on eight.acres.liz at gmail.com

Popular posts from this blog

Chicken tractor guest post

Sign up for my weekly email updates here , you will find out more about chickens, soap and our farmlife, straight to your inbox, never miss a post!  New soap website and shop opening soon.... Tanya from Lovely Greens invited me to write a guest post on chicken tractors for her blog.  I can't believe how many page views I get for chicken tractors, they seem to be a real area of interest and I hope that the information on my blog has helped people.  I find that when I use something everyday, I forget the details that other people may not be aware of, so in this post for Tanya, I tried to just write everything I could think of that I haven't covered in previous posts.  I tried to explain everything we do and why, so that people in other locations and situations can figure out how best to use chicken tractors with their own chickens. The dogs like to hang out behind the chicken tractors and eat chicken poo.  Dogs are gross! If you want to read more about chicken tractor

The new Eight Acres website is live!

Very soon this blogspot address will automatically redirect to the new Eight Acres site, but in the meantime, you can check it out here .  You will find all my soaps, ebooks and beeswax/honey products there, as well as the blog (needs a tidy up, but its all there!).  I will be gradually updating all my social media links and updating and sharing blog posts over the next few months.  I'm very excited to share this new website with you!

Garden Update - July 2013

This month I'm joining the Garden Share Collective , which was started last month by Lizzie from Strayed from the Table , to allow vege gardeners to share their successes and failures and generally encourage everyone to grow more of their own food organically.  This first month, I'll give a detailed update on everything that's growing in my garden, for anyone who hasn't been following for long.  I'll do my normal farm update on Tuesday as well. If you've just joined me, welcome to my vege garden.  I recently wrote about gardening in our sub-tropical climate , so if you're wondering about the huge shade structure, that's for protecting the garden during our hot, humid summers.  At the moment though, the garden is full of brassicas, which grow best here in winter, and are suitably frost-proof.  The garden is about 12 m long by 5 m wide, and surrounded in chicken mesh to keep out the chickens and the bandicoots.  The garden has spilled out around the edg