Aloe vera reprint 06.indd

describes some recent experiences THE medicinal properties of the Aloe plants have long been attested. The Egyptians and ancient Greeks used extracts in the treatment of various conditions and the products from the plants have been included in reputable oriental and western herbal texts for centuries. In more recent years, investigations of the efficacy of Aloe extracts have assessed the value of the products in radiation disease, tuberculosis and thermal burns. The stability of the raw extracted gel is not prolonged and in the 1960s the cosmetic and pharmacological industry succeeded in devising a process which stabilised the extracts for use in oral and topical products. The plant (A. vera barbarensis) is now commercially grown on a wide scale and harvested to provide large quantities of extract for the cosmetic and health food market. In the past few years there has been a great deal of interest in the medical potential of extracts of the Aloe plant and there has been much enthusiasm for the use of the plant in a whole host of conditions. Presumably the reason for this resurgence is in part due to the increasing fashion for “herbal”, “natural” and “organic” remedies, and is a further manifestation of the popularity of alternative medicine. There are also a number of highly motivated companies and network marketing organisations with enthusiastic sales forces that waste no opportunity in promoting the use of Aloe vera for innumerable medical conditions. It is not surprising that this enthusiasm has spilled over into veterinary medicine; Aloe vera products are now packaged and promoted for pet treatments, and informed suppliers are working hard to promote the products for use in horses and farm stock. In common with much of the veterinary profession, the attitude within our practice to the value of these products has been sceptical, not least because the advertised spectrum of efficacy which has included almost everything from Navicular disease to strangles seemed grossly unbelievable. Despite these reservations, we agreed to take a quantity of the extracted gel, supplied by the leading UK importer of Aloe, in order to attempt to assess the efficacy of the product in specific conditions. Two formulations of Aloe extract have been used on equine clinical cases: an oral gel that is mixed with feed, and a topical gel used as a skin lotion. Se lec t ion o f cases for the assessment was not straightforward: in a practice situation there is little opportunity for tightly controlled trials and horses presented by clients for treatment cannot easily be allocated to control or placebo groups. Skin cases have therefore been treated using Aloe vera on the basis of our established experience with other topical products: we have used the plant extract on lesions which we know would respond in predictable ways to other medications and compared results.