Aloe Again : Dermatologists Are Taking a Serious New Look at an Old Folk Remedy
WHENEVER Rocio Robitshek needs a facial masque, she steps out onto the balcony of her Fairfax-district apartment and breaks a spine off her aloe vera plant. She smooths the clear, gooey aloe gel onto her face, lets it dry, then rinses it off to reveal her clear complexion--a result of her dedication to the process, she says. It is a beauty secret passed down to Robitshek from her mother and grandmother in her native Colombia.
Until recently, dermatologists pooh-poohed aloe vera as little more than a placebo. This year, the American Academy of Dermatology announced that it is studying this plant extract, long used as a folk remedy for burns, insect bites and abrasions. And the skin-care industry is watching to determine whether aloe vera will become its next highly touted “anti-aging” ingredient.
“We tested it almost as a joke, initially,” says dermatologist Neal Penneys, a professor at the University of Miami and a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s dermatology advisory panel. “But we found that it did have a positive effect on sunburn, so we began serious research.” Penneys’ first tests have found that aloe has no significant effects on preventing sunburns, and he notes that “there may be preparations that do have an effect, but they haven’t been proven yet.” New aloe vera studies are under way at the Mayo Clinic also, but researchers there say it’s too early for results.
Many scientists are trying to reproduce the results of a major study conducted a few years ago indicating that aloe vera gel, taken straight from the plant, “enhanced human skin-cell regeneration” in test-tube experiments. That finding, by Wendell Winters and researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center, sparked an interest in aloe vera, the use of which as a healing aid and cosmetic dates back to Cleopatra. If Winters’ results can be duplicated in tests on humans, cosmetics makers may begin testing the ingredient as another anti-aging additive like Vitamin A. Until there’s more data, however, aloe vera is not to be considered the latest miracle.
Introduced to the cosmetics market in the late 1970s when interest in natural ingredients reached fad proportions, aloe vera has become a multimillion dollar staple in commercial skin- and hair-care products. Many of those contain only minuscule amounts of pure aloe vera, however, and “unless aloe is the first or second ingredient listed on a label, I wouldn’t expect much benefit,” cautions R. C. Benson, chief executive officer of Texas-based Aloe Labs Inc. He adds that aloe vera spoils quickly, so even products labeled “pure” must contain preservatives.
Winters notes that his results were based on using natural aloe gel taken directly from the plant. Preparations containing only some aloe, he says, did not produce the same regenerative results on the fragile cells he was testing.
At Vera Brown’s tony skin-care salon at the peak of Beverly Glen Boulevard, clients pay a dollar an ounce for bottles of pure aloe vera liquid, and facialists use it during skin treatments. “It smooths, softens and balances the oils in the skin,” says Brown.
But without university research to prove that it works, should consumers believe the claims being made for aloe vera? “Why not?” asks Robitshek. “In Colombia we use it for everything.” And it’s as close and inexpensive as the plant on her patio.
