‘Miracle’ Reputation Precedes Aloe Vera

“Burn plant,” “medicine plant,” “first aid plant” and “miracle plant” all refer to the common aloe, a succulent known for its multitude of healing properties.

Aloe barbadensis, commonly called aloe vera, is popularly used in the form of gels or lotions to soothe minor cuts and burns, and to calm the itch of insect bites or poison ivy. Some health-conscious consumers go one step further, ingesting a dose of freshly squeezed aloe vera juice to help improve digestion and the absorption of nutrients.

One such aloe vera fan is Richard Taylor, a commercial grower in Fallbrook. Taylor cultivates fields of aloe barbadensis miller , one among 200 aloe varieties.

Although the North County climate is ideally suited to succulents, the high price of land and water here don’t make the cultivation of aloe an especially attractive commercial enterprise, Taylor said. “Our biggest competitors are located in South Texas and New Mexico. They have thousands of acres.”

Still, he says, everyone needs to have at least one aloe plant just to deal with life’s little burns and irritations: “There’s nothing better than the gel taken right from the leaf.”

Taylor knew next to nothing about aloe when he planted his first rows a few years ago. The former engineer, fresh from an eight-year tour of building pipelines in Saudi Arabia, “got talked into planting a small patch for a local processor.”

The small patch has now developed into several acres among the low-lying hills of Bonsall.

In a field alongside his home, Taylor surveys the waist-high aloe plants stretching their spiny limbs toward the sky.

“I was ‘Mr. Chemical,’ when I first started,” said the grower. He did a complete turnaround when he noticed his plants were turning brown because of over-fertilizing. He switched to organic growing methods, and his plants soon began to thrive on a more natural diet.

Taylor, who eventually went on to become the president and the certification chairman of the local chapter of the California Certified Organic Farmers, favors overhead watering at night, since drip irrigation causes the aloe’s shallow roots to rot.

“We force-feed these plants just like the French force-feed their geese to make liver pate,” Taylor said. “They’re force-fed water, compost and manure, and they’re kept pruned back in the summer.”

Walking gingerly among the rows to avoid the aloe’s prickly crowns, he gently breaks off a “pup,” or small offshoot growing at the base of a mature plant. The pups are used to create new plantings.

“Within a year, we’ll be able to harvest new leaves,” said Taylor, pointing to a spray of red blossoms.

“The flowers attract hummingbirds, but we try to keep the blooms at a minimum since they sap the energy out of the plant.”

Snails and gophers also find aloe to their liking. Too much water harms the plant, especially after a heavy rain when water stays in the core of the plant, and it rots, said the grower.

Taylor carefully nips a large, outside leaf at the base with the help of an asparagus fork, demonstrating the correct way to harvest a leaf. The leaves will be sold by weight. “We’ve had some weighing 5 pounds apiece,” said Taylor, adding that the leaves average 1 1/2 to 2 pounds.

Taylor breaks open a heavy, spongy limb to reveal the colorless gel with curative powers known the world over.

“In parts of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, women use this as a beauty aid, for their hair and for their skin,” he said.

Aloe is also popular among the Chinese.

“Chinese markets have entire books on aloe, and aloe lore,” he said. “The Chinese even have a character in their alphabet representing aloe.”

Taylor ships the leaves whole to processors or to health or ethnic markets as far away as Singapore and London. Inside a small shed at the back of Taylor’s property, tubs filled with aloe leaves await shipment. Aloe leaves can be stored for some time, says Taylor, showing off a juice-filled limb picked weeks ago, its base sealed over with a natural, self-protective “band-aid.”

Among his aloe memorabilia from all over the world, Taylor counts a 3-year-old bottle of processed tree-aloe juice from Japan, a bottle of juice from Texas (“they drink it like Kool-Aid” he said) and innumerable jars of aloe lotions and creams.

Like other aloe aficionados, Taylor also manufacturers his own aloe juice. “Some people find it more palatable to mix aloe juice with cranberry juice,” he said.

Maryanne Ibarra, director of nutrition and education services for Boney’s Marketplace, said that many of her customers like to add aloe juice to their favorite beverage.

“It’s a wonderful vegetable drink packed with over 200 nutrients,” she says. “It’s a good additive to a healthy diet.”

Ibarra keeps abreast of the latest developments in aloe research by attending scientific conferences involved in researching the plants’ beneficial properties.

“The traditional uses of aloe are so numerous and respected,” she said, adding that aloe was well-known to the ancient Egyptians, and numerous references to the plant exist in the Bible.

Ibarra also markets “Aloe Complete,” a concentrated vegetable drink, manufactured with the whole leaf instead of just the gel.

“Aloe contains every amino acid but two, and it’s almost a perfect sugar,” she said. “Most nutrients are found under the rind, and they then filter into the gel.”

This product, new to San Diego, is now available at most health food stores such as Boney’s, Green Tree Grocer and Cassady’s, among others.

Both aloe vera juice and Aloe Complete have at least a year’s shelf life, according to Maryanne Ibarra. But she said they should be refrigerated after opening.

It should be noted that some people are very sensitive to aloe and can have an adverse reaction to it.