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I was going through some old files and found one containing
extracts of messages from this echo, about ALOE VERA. The
messages range over a period of about a month in 1996, and I
trimmed them down to just the stuff about Aloe Vera.

FWIW from my readings there is no one plant called aloe vera.

In Australia, the one with that name is Aloe Barbadensis, which
has pale green mottled leaves as basal clumps. The flowers are
small and form on the sides of long spikes from the base of the
plant.

But a USA web site had an illustration of an entirely different
plant that looked similar to Aloe Ciliaris that I used to grow,
with long stems crowned with clusters of dark green leaves. The
flowers are large heavy clusters on fauirly short stems that come
from above the leaf clumps.

Both of these varieties have fleshy spines on the edges of the
leaves. Both contain a whitish gel inside the leaves, which seems
to have a similar action to the commercial Aloe Vera.

I suspect many more varieties of aloe contain such a gel.

Here is the file of message extracts:

------------------------------------------------------------

From:   Mandy Carbery
   I would love to hear from anyone with experience in any ideas on
   other uses for Aloe Vera.

From:   Jan Cuccia
   I ingest it by either drinking about an ounce of the juice added to a
   glass of water or by breaking off a leaf and eating the whole thing

   If you had a jucier, you could make your own fresh anytime & drink it

From:   Mandy Carbery
   As I have a juicer, I thought this too,  but I need to check it out
   thoroughly before I start experimenting on myself.

   I have been informed that the gel is a "very very very powerful
   laxative.. even stronger than Cascara Sagrada."  I haven't heard of
   Cascara  Sagrada here in Australia but the advice followed on to say
   "avoid it"

   So I was wondering have you experienced any side-effects. I doubted
   so as otherwise you wouldn't recommend it. So, this leads me to ask
   what quantities do you drink. How may leaves per glass (or in an
   ounce) How may glasses per week, etc. What benefits have you felt
   personally attribed to Aloe use. How long have you been drinking it
   for.

   I understand most Aloe Drinks are 10% Aloe & 90% Water, but still
   don't know if this is a safe level.

   I have excerpts from Dr John Finnegans two forthcoming books which
   basically claim Aloe can cure everything from cancer to aids and I am
   an absolute skeptic when it comes to these wild sorts of claims, so
   as all the positive information is great, unfortunately it's too
   overwhelming for me to not take it all with a grain of salt for now.

From:   Bonnie Stone
   Just wanted to pop in here and actually say "howdy" to someone in
   Australia! I don't have any personal experience with Aloe Vera,
   except for keeping the plant around the kitchen for burns.  There is
   a secretary at work who drinks the juice and she says it really works
   for her.

From:   Meg Umans
   Aloe are hardy, to put it mildly :).  It doesn't matter how many
   plants share teh same root system:  each plant can grow separately as
   long as it has a tiny bit of root.  You can just pull 'em apart with
   your hands - I've done that lots of times, and then leave them alone
   until you feel like sticking them in some dirt.  They'll hang in
   there for a couple of months with just their bare roots sticking out.
   They don't need sun, either, not any at all.  Mine are proliferating
   madly and sending up lots of stalks and they're in complete shade. If
   you water them, they grow more and make more babies.

From:   Marilyn Berry
   My aloes flourish in the shade, too.  In warm weather, they grow in
   pots sitting right next to the impatiens, under an oak tree. They've
   been in the house since October, and haven't been watered yet, and
   they're doing great.... I actually find them very hard to kill!  :-)
   We use them practically every day for something, and they manage to
   multiply faster than we use them....

   Meg this thing is, easily, a foot in diameter.  If I get it out of
   the pot, which is in doubt, then I still have to divide it.  Which
   means that I'll probably have to cut it with a saw.  But first I have
   to get two more

   I spent a couple of hours yesterday relocating aloe.  About 20 of
   them were as big as yours...they were in the ground, and they'd taken
   over the patch, so I started a few more patches.  Here's how you get
   a huge aloe out of the dirt it's in:  grab it by the leaves and pull.
   The roots are *tiny*, Linda.  If you're thinking "...but Meg doesn't
   know my aloe", then put your foot on the rim of the planter for
   leverage.  Or pry it up with a spade. When you see the roots, you'll
   see you can pull it into a many pieces as you need it to be in, as
   long as each piece has the tiniest fragment of root.

   And here's how I plant them:  dig up pone spadeful of dirt, shove the
   roots into the hole, push the dirt around the roots.  That's it.  If
   you enjoy the actual work, you can make it take longer. I do, but
   it's not necessary.  I clear the  weeds, then I pull off the dead and
   wilty bottom leaves from the aloe...then that's it.

   I know the big ones are intimidating, but they're really *very* hardy
   and adaptable and forgiving.  Someone here (I'm sorry, I don't
   remember her name) said they plant themselves, so I laid several
   medium-sized aloe along two areas of fence I'd like them to guard 
   , and I'll report in a few weeks whether they've dug themselves in.

   What I need to know now is uses for them, especially as food. You
   said, I think, that you make aloe jelly.  How?

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