The health food retailers in the UK are now into aloe vera juice in a big way. What made me laugh was the price of 1 litre of the juice.....£11 or £20 for two. Expensive!!!!

Give me a freshly cut leaf of plant anyday..........shame the UK climate is not condusive for healthy aloes growing ital.

I heard aloe vera is good for just about anything that's wrong with the body.

Can someone with experience of it advise on how aloe can be taken internally? I have lots of it growing in my garden and have used it on scrapes, stings and sunburns, but unsure about making juice or other internal applications.

Copied text..

(Realize that it's more expensive to make your own aloe vera juice juice from plants at home, unless you have a sizeable plot of mature aloe vera plants that are growing freely in a climate where there is no snow, winters are very mild, and at least 300 days of the year are sunny. Your best option, short of this, is to purchase a quality aloe vera juice from a reliable manufacturer such as Forever Living Products, International.)

First it's important to understand that not all aloe plants are the same.  You only want to extract the gel from Aloe Barbadensis Miller plants.  These plants must be mature (3 to 4 years of age) and grown outside year-round in a semi-tropical climate (such as the frost-free areas of southern United States) for the fullest aloe vera juice benefits.

Then it's important to keep in mind that the inner gel (the part you use to make aloe vera juice) oxidizes very rapidly.

What is oxidization?  In a nutshell, it's this:  When you bite into an apple it will start to turn brown within several minutes.  Likewise, when you cut into a potato the inner flesh will begin to brown within several minutes.  Both of these examples demonstrate the process known as "oxidation."  It's important to realize that in the case of aloe vera gel, oxidation breaks down many of the nutrients and beneficial compounds.  Not a good thing.

The only company to overcome the oxidation process by stabilizing their aloe vera gel minutes after it is removed from the outer rind is; therefore not surprisingly, the largest grower, manufacture and distributor of Aloe Vera Juice in the world.  (You can find their aloe drinks by clicking the link in the section above this page.)

For the person who wants to make their own aloe vera juice at home, just realize that you need to harvest the leaf and then immediately remove the rind and the yellow layer just under the rind (aloin) which, if ingested, may cause diarrhea and cramping.  (A good reason to be very careful.)

Once the rind and latex are removed (to be certain you have all the latex removed, with a knife scrape into the gel and remove thusly) you are left with the pure, translucent, inner gel (see picture to the right of the rind removed from the inner gel).

One way to help BRIEFLY stabilize the exposed gel - as well as to make it more palatable to drink in the form of aloe vera juice, is to then put the gel into a blender with either orange juice or grapefruit juice.  About two tablespoons of the aloe vera gel per glass of your favorite juice is sufficient to make a suitable aloe vera juice drink.

Some people rinse the freshly harvested and filleted gel with a watered-down vinegar solution to remove any remaining latex residue from their juice.

Keep in mind that it takes a lot of time and messy work to make your own aloe vera juice.  You also will go through a lot of plants for enough juice for a month.  The expense of making your own juice is not worth your time and money when you can get the highest quality aloe vera juice and skincare online (see Aloe Vera Juices).

See a Brief video on the uses and benefits of aloe vera juice drinks.

Lisa, this is very interesting.

The way to prevent the homemade Aloe from oxidizing is as follows:

Add Vitamin C and refridgerate.

Unfortunately the Aloe that you purchase is not made from fresh aloes. The manufacturers dehydrate the aloe into a powder and by the time they add all the additivies, there is very little aloe actually in the product. All you need to do is read the label and see where on the list the aloe appears.

An Aloe leaf that weighs a pound can give you enough aloe juice for a week.

Thanks Lisa and Gladys.

Can anyone say from experience what are the benefits of drinking aloe vera juice?

Its tastes awful.

If the yellow and bitter part under the skin is cleaned off well and the gel filet left washed, the bitter is much reduced. Blend with orange, lime, pawpaw, mango etc.

If you want and good washout, eat the leaf whole.

turey, what do you mean by 'eat the leaf whole'.

Just that Aloe. Break a leaf from the plant, wash and eat, skin and all. As Lisa said, the Aloin in the yellow and bitter part under the skin causes the muscles in the gut to contract causing the contents to move through faster.

http://www.globalherbalsupplies.com/herb_information/aloe_vera.htm

Also, some are allergic to aloe:

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/allergies/439277-aloe-vera-allergy-a-word-of-caution /AllOnOnePage

Bush Tea Dangers: An Ounce of Prevention?

LINK:
http://nicefmradio.com/uncategorized/jamaica-bush-tea-danger

I have seen much anecdotal evidence of people who regularly used bush tea but died relatively early. For that reason, I often wonder about the scientific evidence of these traditional remedies. Thank you for sharing z.

Many of us have limited access to modern medicine. Bush was our medicine cabinet before bigpharma.

There are toxins in many (most?) of the plants we use. The healthy body has the means of dealing with them if they come from our accustomed diet.

We have lost much information on the use of bush. Time of harvesting, type of plant, method of preparation and most importantly; dosage. Also, one man's medicine is another's poison, individual sensitivities/allergies.

I believe the UWI has papers published on this topic. Thanks to the Mothers, Scienceman and Bushman who are preserving these gifts.

If you are a good gardener, you can grow aloe vera plant at home and extract the juice of the same by yourself. Just cut the outer most edges of the plant's leaves, wash eat, dig out the yellow pale colored gel from it as it is harmful.

Dig out the green gel from the leaves, soak it and use it with water. It is easy and with no side effects since it is natural.

Know how to make aloe vera juice: http://www.aloevera-juicebenefits.com

The particular juice is used a lot as an immunostimulant and it is being studied because of its value towards cancer malignancy in men and women at the same time. Topical creams are developed using an aloe-vera base for the therapy of herpes. All these uses also help out with the therapy of skin psoriasis and in some cases gingivitis and oral plaque buildup.



Aloe-vera juice has plenty of tested anti-bacterial and anti-fungal qualities. It's used in treatments applied to stop ringworm or tinea creating fungus infection. The actual complete amounts of active substances like C-glycosides and various other lectins allows aloe-vera. It is actually a well-known anti inflammatory, anti-oxidant and wellness restoring agent. Specific lotions are actually offered to cure abrasions, stings and lacerations, burning from the sun, eczema and pimples. The sap and also gel of this herb is usually taken in to stop heartburn or acid reflux, vaginal yeast infections, Chron's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, bronchial asthma, hay fever and in many cases defend the body from toxins.



The main benefits of natural aloe-vera are popular today therefore we can strongly suggest its intake, but make sure you talk to your physician first. In most cases some people can react in a different way to natural aloe vera.

You can check the following link for all information: http://www.thevitaminmag.com/the-health-benefits-of-drinking-aloe-vera-juice/

Medical Ailments: Individuals affected by intestinal ailments and ibs must avoid aloevera juice since the stimulant laxatives in it are able to enhance the seriousness of the health conditions.



Carrying a child: Drinking aloevera juice when pregnant or while breastfeeding is seriously limited due to the irritant plus purgative premises. Aloe-vera must be not allowed for the period of lactation since the levels of anthraquinones inside the breast milk may cause looseness of the bowels. In expectant women aloe-vera juice might cause vaginal contractions and in some cases cause losing the baby.



Slows Injury Recovering: Natural Aloe Vera juice or external natural aloe-vera products are certainly not appropriate in cases where there are intense injuries and burns because they can cause a hold up in injury recovering.



It is essential to remember that the majority of the aloevera juice adverse reactions are caused by an overdosage or wrong use. If you suffer from these side-effects then avoid using aloe-vera instantly and search for professional medical support if you can. Additionally in case you're on any drugs, then look for the healthcare provider's suggestions before using aloe-vera juice. We hope you understand now that drinking natural aloe-vera juice continuously can have specific negative effects, so be smart.

Taken From - http://www.thevitaminmag.com/aloe-vera-juice-side-effects/

Aloe vera helps me for acid reflux, but you should take it with caution because if you exceed the recommended dosage (read about how much aloe vera juice to drink daily) you may experience some side effects. I drink 50g (not every day but only when I have heartburn) and its enough for me. It also tastes terrible (if its a natural aloe vera juice)that's why I'd also recommend you to mix it with some other juice.

Mix it with white rum.

I remember visits to my grandfather Josiah (Juice)Reynolds who lived beside Mr. Honyigan in 1960's &1970's.Eating freshly made bammy with soft fry eggs all organic of course.Visit Uncles Albrey, Tommy,and visit Uncle Simeon where we swim near hotel. My aunts were Ermine, Atlyn, Evadney. Watermelon all day then fresh fried fish. A fascinating place people were very warm welcoming with strong family ties and love of community