Plants and natural products are not only a ways to make more money on people, some plants really presents incredible properties that we usually do not know. When researching for eco-innovative products, you cannot avoid coming across with Aloe Vera products. This plant is quite a miracle of life and nature and I believe that one article will not be enough to explain how large the use of Aloe Vera and how effective it is. Let’s start from the beginning, what is Aloe Vera and where can you use it.

Aloe Vera, the plant

Some say that it was the beauty secret of Cleopatra, while the ancient Greeks called it the “elixir of immortality”. With original and elegant foliage evoking a cactus, Aloe Vera plant comes from hot countries and it seems that the plant comes from South Africa. Indeed, Aloe Vera grows in hot, dry areas and is now cultivated in many parts of the world, from Spain to Mexico, passing through the South of the United States. Easy to grow, its succulent gel has become in a few years the subject of a real business! Aloe Vera is used for lot products especially for herbal medicine and cosmetic industries.

You can find around 300 different types of Aloe Vera in the world but only the Aloe Vera Barbadensis Miller can be used in food products. Imagine the plant is so important and has so many properties that in the United States a special Institute has been created, the International Aloe Vera Science Council, which mission is to promote the plant and its virtues and certificate the origin and the quality of the Aloe Vera and the processes used for the manufacturing industries.

Aloe Vera from the mind to the body

Aloe is used in many different products like shampoo, soaps, creams even for yogurt and juices. Why? The Aloe Vera plant, and especially the Barbadensis Miller is composed of around 200 clean organic ingredients like enzymes, vitamins, trace elements, bioflavonoid, sugars, essential amino acids and all these ingredients are present in an extremely balanced relation between each other. Aloe Vera and its properties can help soothing burns, wounds, scrapes, abrasions, insect bites, rashes, acne and scars from chickenpox.

The Aloe Vera gel is composed from 99% of water and is a storage of multitude nutrients that supports our health. This is the magic of the plant and that is why it should be part of your daily hygiene. The first recommended use for Aloe Vera is dermatological, Aloe Vera helps the body to create more fibroblasts in cutaneous tissues helping the skin to regenerate better, and this is also why it is recommended for wounds since it helps avoiding infections and scars.

How to have Aloe Vera at home? It is easy either you buy a plant in a pot, take good care of it and learn how to extract the gel either you can find in the international market (unfortunately Greece does not produce any Aloe Vera gel) Aloe Vera gel. There are a lot of companies producing the gel, but let’s remain in Europe and let’s use certified products, and for this reason MissBlue recommends you  the LR Aloe Vera Concentrated Gel that includes 90% of natural certified Aloe Vera Gel[1].

Sources:

International Aloe Vera Science Council (IASC) official website: http://www.iasc.org/

Article in e-sante.fr website « Aloe Vera : une plante miracle pour la peau ? », Julie Luong, Health Journalist, 21/01/2013, http://www.e-sante.fr/aloe-vera-plante-miracle-pour-peau/actualite/329