How I use herbs - aloe vera

Mar 07, 2014by Liz Beavis

I want to write about Aloe Vera 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?

eBooks By Eight Acres

View all

eBook - Make Your Own Natural Soap

eBook - Our Experience with House Cows

eBook - A Beginner's Guide to Backyard Chickens and Chicken Tractors

eBook - Advanced Natural Soapmaking Techniques

eBook - Grow Your Own Vegetables

Eat what you grow, or grow what you eat?

Most conventional vegetable garden planning advice says to "grow what you eat", to look in your fridge for ideas of w...
Posts about Growing Vegetables on Eight Acres

I started my first vegetable garden in 2008 after I was inspired by a DVD in which Peter Cundall (from Gardening Aust...
Weird vegetables in my sub-tropical garden

I've had some questions about the weird vegetables in my sub-tropical food garden, so here are some details for you. ...
Tips for starting vegetables from seeds

Its time to start planting for spring, and the cheapest way to grow your own vegetables is ito start from seeds (and ...
Our Food Forest after one year

We finally planted our food forest one year ago (you can read all about it here). It was a long time in the planning....
Developing our food forest

What is a food forest? A food forest is a permaculture concept, best explained by the following quote from My Smart G...
My new raised garden beds

We have been in our "new" house in Kumbia for nearly two years and thing I've missed the most is not having a proper ...