This is Frontier’s double wall silverfoil pack. Some Frontier packs are double wall wax-lined paper.

The powder is turned into a gel by adding water.

Aloe ferox gel is exceptional among the gels of other aloe species because of its high calcium and total amino-acid content. In this regard it far surpasses Aloe vera and other species utilised for their gel. The 34 different amino-acids contained in Aloe ferox gel amount to more than 30nMol/mg of the dry mass of whole leaf.

Aloe ferox is used precisley the same way as Aloe vera, and is covered by the old herbalists in the same article, under the heading 'Aloes.' As the Eclectic Materia Medica, 1922, puts it, 'The dried juice of the leaves of several species of Aloe: (1) Aloe Perryi, Baker; (2) Aloe vera, Linné; (3) Aloe ferox, Miller. (Nat. Ord. Liliaceae). Barbadoes, Africa and the Orient. Common Names: (1) Socotrine Aloes; (2) Curaçoa Aloes; (3) Cape Aloes.' As Grieve puts it, 'There is little to choose medicinally between the Curacoa and Socotrine varieties...'

When applied externally, gel or preparations of gel made from the plant powder achieve anti-inflammatory effects through activity against bradykinin, prostaglandin and thromboxane, which are substances involved in causing inflammatory swelling, pain and constriction of small blood vessels.

Laboratory experiments have shown that the gel stimulates the growth not only of lymphocytes, which are important blood cells in immunological defence mechanisms, but also of fibroblastic cells in skin and connective tissues, thus aiding in tissue regeneration after wounding.

The 1997 Commission E on Phytotherapy and Herbal Substances of the German Federal Institute for Drugs recommends Aloes for 'Constipation. Dosage: Aloe powder, aqueous and aqueous-alcoholic extracts in powdered or liquid form, for oral use. Unless otherwise prescribed: 20 - 30 mg hydroxyanthracene derivatives/day, calculated as anhydrous aloin. The individually correct dosage is the smallest dosage necessary to maintain a soft stool.'

Grieve's classic 'A Modern Herbal': 'The drug Aloes is one of the safest and best warm and stimulating purgatives to persons of sedentary habits and phlegmatic constitutions. An ordinary small dose takes from 15 to 18 hours to produce an effect. Its action is exerted mainly on the large intestine, for which reason, also it is useful as a vermifuge. Its use, however, is said to induce Piles.'

'Preparations of Aloes are rarely prescribed alone, they require the addition of carminatives to moderate the tendency to griping. The compound preparations of Aloes in use generally contain such correctives, but powdered Aloes and the extracts of Aloes represent the crude drug.'

'Aloes in one form or another is the commonest domestic medicine and is the basis of most proprietary or so-called 'patent' pills.'

'There is little to choose medicinally between the Curacoa and Socotrine varieties, but the former is somewhat more powerful, 2 grains of Curacoa Aloes being equal to 3 grains of Socotrine Aloes in purgative action. The latter is more expensive, but varies much in quality.'

'Aloes is the purgative in general uses for horses, it is also used in veterinary practice as a bitter tonic in small doses, and externally as a stimulant and desiccant.'

'Aloes was employed by the ancients and was known to the Greeks as a production of the island of Socotra as early as the fourth century B.C. The drug was used by Dioscorides, Celsus and Pliny, as well as by the later Greek and Arabian physicians, though it is not mentioned either by Hippocrates or Theophrastus.'

'Preparations: Fluid extract: dose, 5 to 30 drops. Powdered extract: dose, 1 to 5 grains. Comp decoc., B.P.: dose, ½ to 2 oz. Tincture B.P.: dose, ¼ to 2 drachms. Tincture aloes myrrh, U.S.P.: dose, 30 drops.'

King's 1898 Dispensatory: 'Tonic, purgative, emmenagogue, and anthelmintic. In doses of from ½ grain to 1 grain, 2 or 3 times a day, aloes exerts a decided tonic influence, but is seldom resorted to for this purpose.'

'As a laxative and purgative, its applications are unbounded; it acts more especially on the muscular coat of the large intestines, rather increasing their peristaltic motion than effecting copious, thin or watery discharges; and from its tendency to produce heat and irritation about the anus, it is extremely improper (except in minute doses in debilitated individuals) for persons disposed to or troubled with piles.'

'When applied endermically to an ulcer or blistered surface, it purges as effectually and promptly as when taken into the stomach; 10 grains used thus will purge in from 6 to 10 hours. Administered to nursing mothers it will purge the sucking child.'

'It acts upon the uterus, promoting the menstrual flow, which is partly owing to the stimulation of the organ, and the determination of blood toward it, occasioned by the medicine.'

'It is said that 1 to 3 grains of extract of hyoscyamus, or hops, or 2 grains of ipecacuanha, mixed with the aloetic dose, will prevent its irritating effect on the lower intestines. An increase of the quantity of aloes beyond the medium dose is not attended by a corresponding increase of effect. Aloes has been efficacious in constipation, dyspepsia, and ascarides; in this last instance being used in form of an injection, 10 grains to 3 ounces of water, for children.'

'In chlorosis and amenorrhoea, it has often proved serviceable, and is used for this purpose in various combinations. In cases of delicate females, with loss of appetite, torpor of the bowels, and suffering, with suppression of the menses, the following has been recommended for the purpose of exciting proper ovarian or uterine action: Take of the best aloes, pulverized, asafoetida, pulverized, each, ½ drachm; cantharides, pulverized, 20 grains; mix and rub well together with a little soap, and divide into 20 pills. Of these give from 1 to 3, 3 times a day. If the patient be very feeble, some of the salts of iron may also be added. Injections of aloes, composed of from 10 to 30 grains dissolved in 2 or 3 fluid ounces of water, and thrown up the rectum daily, and continued for a week previous to the menstrual period, have sometimes proved effectual.'

'For habitual constipation, aloes should never be given in cathartic doses. Debility and marked intestinal torpor point to its selection. Rx Aloes, gr. j; powdered ipecac, gr. ss; extract nux vom., gr. ¼. Mix. Make 1 pill. Sig.: Give 1 such pill from 1 to 3 times a day, according to the condition.'

'Aloes should never be given in inflammatory affections, in irritable, plethoric habits, in gastritis, enteritis, and, as a rule, where piles are present; nor to females liable to sudden uterine evacuations, nor during pregnancy.'

'In hemorrhoids it may be given when modified by combination, or in the minute doses above referred to. Soap, or an alkaline carbonate, lessens its irritant action. The union of other purgatives with aloes often modifies its tendency to irritate the rectum. One grain of aloes with 2 or 3 grains of sulphate of iron will also modify this action, and will produce as much effect as 2 or 3 grains of aloes.'

'As a laxative, aloes will be found useful in habitual constipation, from intestinal torpor, jaundice, scrofula, hypochondriasis; and as a cathartic, where there is a tendency to cerebral congestion. Dose of aloes is from ¼ to 10, or even 20, grains; and the most convenient form of administration is that of pill. It enters as a constituent into a great number of useful compound remedies.'

American Materia Medica, 1919 (Ellingwood): 'If administered to a nursing mother it will produce a cathartic effect upon the infant. It is a constituent of the larger proportion of the carthartic pills on the market.'

'If the liver is acting normally a much less dose will produce a cathartic effect than when there is a torpid or an inactive liver.'

'The agent should be used, if at all, with much care in inflammatory conditions, especially in those of the intestinal canal, as it is an irritant to the lower bowel. It increases the heart's action and the circulation of blood and raises the temperature.'

'The agent is emmenagogue and abortive in its action and should not be given during pregnancy. It will produce a full menstrual flux in some cases of suppression.'


Eclectic Materia Medica, 1922 (Felter): 'Aloes, in ½ to 1 grain doses, is a gastric stimulant of value in atonic indigestion, with obstinate constipation.'

'Aloes and iron are both very useful in delicate women who are subject to amenorrhoea or menorrhagia, with pelvic and intestinal torpor, poor appetite, and a weak circulation. As most of these cases are profoundly constipated, the explanation of the combination may be found in the laxative action of the aloes.'

'It is still a debatable question whether aloes influences the flow of bile. When, however, jaundice is coexistent with torpor of the hemorrhoidal veins, it may be improved by laxative doses of aloes or aloin. Aloes is a decidedly useful but much abused medicine in chronic or habitual constipation. As stated above only slightly laxative amounts should be used.'