Not-for-profit research & education institute · Cassowary Coast, Far North Queensland

DonateContact

Crest of the Australian Institute of Pharmacognosy Australian Institute of PharmacognosyAustralian Research & Education

Aloes resin

Dr Thomas Ridley

By Dr Thomas Ridley · Australian Institute of Pharmacognosy

Head of Education and Research

72 min read

Aloes resin - Australian Institute of Pharmacognosy
In this article
  1. 0. Summary card, summary and contents
  2. 1. Nomenclature
  3. 2. Definition
  4. 3. Source and Australian supply
  5. 3.1 Where it must be grown: origin, climate and chemistry
  6. 4. Macroscopy
  7. 5. Microscopy
  8. 6. Chemistry
  9. 7. Named markers and assay limits
  10. 8. TLC fingerprint
  11. 9. HPLC fingerprint
  12. 10. Identity, purity, adulterants and contaminants
  13. 11. Traditional use
  14. 12. Current practice: use, preparations and doses
  15. 13. Clinical evidence
  16. 14. Pharmacology
  17. 15. Safety
  18. 16. Discussion
  19. 17. Conclusions
  20. 18. Research still needed
  21. 19. References
  22. 20. Document control

AIP-HP 017 · Version 1.0 draft · First published 2026 · Last modified 2026 · Version history · Report an error

Australian Herbal Pharmacopoeia (working title), monograph AIP-HP 017
Date: 2026
Status: working document, version 1.0
Prepared by: Dr Thomas Ridley, Head of Education and Research, Australian Institute of Pharmacognosy, Cardwell, Queensland

0. Summary card, summary and contents

0.1 Identity card

Field Entry
Monograph AIP-HP 017, version 1.0 draft. Published 2026; next review due 2029, or sooner if a controlled trial of aloes alone reports or a regulator changes its position on hydroxyanthracene derivatives
Title Aloes resin (Aloe ferox Mill. and Aloe vera (L.) Burm.f.), Aloes folii succus siccatus
Accepted names Aloe ferox Mill. (Cape aloes) and Aloe vera (L.) Burm.f. (Barbados or Curaçao aloes), Asphodelaceae, order Asparagales. Both accepted in WCVP (checked 29/09/2026) [1]. The trade name "Aloe spp." covers these two sources and the hybrids of A. ferox named by the pharmacopoeias [4,5]
Plant part Concentrated and dried juice (exudate) that drains from the cut leaves: dark brown masses or powder [4]. Trade name in Australian practice: aloes resin [2]
Principal synonyms Aloe barbadensis Mill. (the name used by Ph. Eur., the EU monograph and the Permissible Ingredients Determination for A. vera); Aloe horrida Haw., A. pseudoferox Salm-Dyck, A. supralaevis Haw. (for A. ferox) [1,3,4,6]
Common names Aloes, Cape aloes, bitter aloe, Barbados aloes, Curaçao aloes; Afrikaans bitteraalwyn; Indian names ghrita kumari, kumari, ghikuar; Chinese lu wei, lo-hoei [5]
Status in pharmacopoeias Ph. Eur.: yes, monographs 0257 Aloes, Barbados; 0258 Aloes, Cape; 0259 Aloes dry extract, standardised (8th Edition read) [4]. Japanese Pharmacopoeia 18th edn: Aloe and Powdered Aloe (Cape type) [11]. WHO Monographs vol. 1: Aloe [5]. EU/HMPC: EU herbal monograph, well-established use, 2016 [6]. USP, BP, BHP 1996: listed by the HMPC and by Barnes; texts not read for this version [7,9]
Australian status Permissible Ingredients Determination items 480 ALOE FEROX (purposes A, E, H), 481 ALOE PERRYI (A, H), 482 ALOE VERA (A, E, H) and 483 ALOES CAPE (A, H): for oral use, hydroxyanthracene derivatives calculated as anhydrous barbaloin are a mandatory component, with laxative warning statements set by dose [3]. Not in the Poisons Standard [12]. A. vera introduced in Queensland; A. ferox not recorded as established in Australia [1,15]. A. ferox is in CITES Appendix II; A. vera is not listed [13]
Named markers Hydroxyanthracene derivatives expressed as barbaloin: not less than 28.0 per cent (Barbados), not less than 18.0 per cent (Cape), dried drug, Ph. Eur. spectrophotometric assay [4]. Barbaloin by HPLC: not less than 4.0 per cent, JP18 (Cape type) [11]. Identity: barbaloin, aloesin and aloinosides A and B (Cape) or the violet 7-hydroxyaloin zone (Barbados) by TLC [4]
Evidence snapshot Short-term relief of occasional constipation, aloes alone: Tier T for the use and Tier P for the mechanism; no controlled trial of aloes alone exists; accepted in the EU as well-established use on marketing history and pharmacology [6,7]. Chronic constipation, celandine-aloe-psyllium capsules: Tier C, 1 small RCT of a three-herb product, very low certainty [7]. Blood glucose in type 2 diabetes: Tier C, 1 uncontrolled series of 5 patients [7,9]. Colorectal cancer risk with anthranoid laxatives: observational class data, inconsistent [7]
Suggested citation Australian Institute of Pharmacognosy. Aloes resin (Aloe ferox Mill. and Aloe vera (L.) Burm.f.), Aloes folii succus siccatus. Australian Herbal Pharmacopoeia (working title), AIP-HP 017, version 1.0. Cardwell, QLD: AIP; 2026. DOI to be assigned
Provenance Original AIP data: none. Every analytical figure, limit, method and trial result in this monograph comes from the cited sources; the distribution map, the dose comparison and the evidence map are drawn by AIP from published data, and the schematics are redrawn from pharmacopoeial descriptions
Compiler and review Compiled by Dr Thomas Ridley (Education and Research). Technical review: Dr Fiona MacAllister (Botanical, sections 1-5 and adulterants in 10), reviewed in 2026; Dr Hana Suzuki (QA, sections 6-10), reviewed in 2026; Dr Eleanor Whitcombe (Medicine, sections 12, 13, 15), reviewed in 2026. Evidence and citation audit: Dr Thomas Ridley (Education and Research; the compiler, so not independent), reviewed in 2026. Layout review: Jesse Kirby (Community Outreach, whole-document layout and figures), reviewed in 2026. Published: not yet. Last modified: 2026. Version 1.0 draft
Canonical URL /pharmacopoeia/aloe-spp/ (on publication)
Figure 1. Aloe ferox in its native range, Mountain Zebra National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa, photographed 29/09/2
Figure 1. Aloe ferox in its native range, Mountain Zebra National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa, photographed 29/09/2016: a single-stemmed plant with a skirt of old dry leaves below a rosette of thick, spiny leaves. This is the plant tapped in the wild for Cape aloes. Photograph Bernard Dupont, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

0.2 Summary

Aloes is the bitter yellow juice that drains from the cut leaves of two aloes, boiled down and left to set into dark brown masses. Cape aloes comes from wild Aloe ferox in South Africa; Barbados or Curaçao aloes comes from cultivated Aloe vera in the Caribbean and Venezuela [4,5,8]. The juice sits in a ring of cells around the vascular bundles of the leaf, apart from the clear central gel sold as "aloe vera", and the two products must never be confused [5,8]. The European Pharmacopoeia identifies each kind by TLC (barbaloin and aloesin in both; aloinosides in Cape aloes; a violet 7-hydroxyaloin zone in Barbados aloes) and assays hydroxyanthracene derivatives as barbaloin: at least 28 per cent in Barbados aloes and 18 per cent in Cape aloes [4].

Aloes is a stimulant laxative. The anthrone C-glycosides pass unchanged to the colon, where bacteria turn them into aloe-emodin-9-anthrone, which increases colonic secretion and motility; the effect comes 6 to 12 hours after a dose [6]. No controlled trial of aloes alone has been published. The EU accepts short-term use for occasional constipation on long marketing and class pharmacology [6,7]. The main safety points are electrolyte loss with prolonged use, a list of contraindications shared with all anthranoid laxatives, and an unresolved genotoxicity and carcinogenicity question: a whole-leaf A. vera extract caused large-bowel tumours in rats, and EFSA concluded that hydroxyanthracene derivatives should be treated as genotoxic and carcinogenic unless shown otherwise [22,23,24]. The doses given in Australian practitioner texts, if taken daily, supply more dried aloes than the WHO and EU ranges (section 12).

0.3 Contents and extent

Section Pages (approx.)
0 Summary card, summary, contents 4
1 Nomenclature 1
2 Definition 0.5
3 Source and Australian supply, 3.1 origin and chemistry 3
4 Macroscopy 2.5
5 Microscopy 1.5
6 Chemistry 2
7 Named markers and assay limits 1
8 TLC fingerprint 1
9 HPLC fingerprint 1
10 Identity, purity, adulterants, contaminants 2
11 Traditional use 1
12 Current practice, preparations and doses 1.5
13 Clinical evidence 2.5
14 Pharmacology 1
15 Safety 3
16–18 Discussion, conclusions, research needed 2
19 References 2
20 Document control 1

Totals (approx.): 32 printed A4 pages; 19 figures, of which 17 are images (6 photographs, 2 botanical plates and 1 photomicrograph of the source leaf, all openly licensed or public domain; 1 licensed drawing; 7 AIP drawings, schematics and charts) and 2 are captioned placeholders; 0 photomicrographs of the drug and 0 chromatograms; 23 tables; 1 randomised trial and 2 uncontrolled human reports graded, all on the HMPC summaries while the full texts are requested; 1 source graded "caution" on the integrity screen; 30 references.

Gaps in the figure set. Figure slot F4 (photomicrographs of the powdered drug) and slot F8 (HPLC chromatogram) are placeholders: no openly licensed photomicrograph of powdered aloes or chromatogram of the dried exudate was found (a licensed photomicrograph of A. vera leaf epidermis, Figure 12, shows the source leaf only), and AIP has not yet run either on a vouchered lot. Slot F3 is filled by a schematic redrawn from the pharmacopoeial descriptions and by two licensed photographs of the harvest; an AIP photograph of a dispensary lot with a scale bar is pending.

0.4 Contributors and access

Compiled by Dr Thomas Ridley, Head of Education and Research. The section reviews by Botanical (Dr Fiona MacAllister), QA (Dr Hana Suzuki) and Medicine (Dr Eleanor Whitcombe) and the evidence and citation audit by Education and Research (Dr Thomas Ridley) are on record, as is the layout review by Community Outreach (Jesse Kirby). Pending: the Librarian’s reference check and the Legal review. Each is recorded in section 20 when it lands. The free sample is the first five printed pages; the full text is available to Scholar members and above.

29 more pages follow · 14,639 words, 18 figures, 21 tables

Still to come in this monograph

  1. 1. Nomenclature
  2. 2. Definition
  3. 3. Source and Australian supply
  4. 3.1 Where it must be grown: origin, climate and chemistry
  5. 4. Macroscopy
  6. 5. Microscopy
  7. 6. Chemistry
  8. 7. Named markers and assay limits
  9. 8. TLC fingerprint
  10. 9. HPLC fingerprint
  11. 10. Identity, purity, adulterants and contaminants
  12. 11. Traditional use
  13. 12. Current practice: use, preparations and doses
  14. 13. Clinical evidence
  15. 14. Pharmacology
  16. 15. Safety
  17. 16. Discussion
  18. 17. Conclusions
  19. 18. Research still needed
  20. 19. References
  21. 20. Document control

The rest of this monograph is open to members. One membership covers every members’ feature on the site.

Checking your membership…

Report an error or submit evidence

If something in this monograph is wrong, out of date or missing, tell us and show us the evidence. Every report is logged under the AIP Evidence Charter and assessed on the evidence alone; the outcome is kept on the record, and an upheld report is corrected with a dated notice on this page.

Open the report form

What kind of report is this?

A report without evidence is still logged, and closed as “no evidence lodged”.

We use your name and email only to acknowledge and answer this report. They are kept with the dispute record, are not shared, and are not published unless you tick the box above. The evidence you send may be published. See the Privacy Policy.

The Institute sets and publishes its own monographs. The catalogue is in Publications.