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Aloe Vera Gel Cut Edema and Prostaglandin E2 in the Lab

Aloe vera extract is in the Folli-Activ 10-in-1 oral formula. The laboratory papers behind that ingredient used gel from the leaf, not a Folli-Activ capsule, and the endpoints were inflammation assays plus a body of topical skin trials. Scalp skin is skin. A hair-count trial of oral aloe was not part of the record opened for this page, so this page does not invent one.

Rat paw edema, neutrophils, and prostaglandin E2

Vázquez, Avila, Segura, and Escalante tested aqueous, chloroform, and ethanol extracts of Aloe vera gel. The inflammatory challenges were carrageenan-induced edema in the rat paw and carrageenan-stimulated neutrophil migration into the peritoneal cavity. Aqueous and chloroform extracts decreased the paw edema and decreased the number of neutrophils entering the cavity. The ethanol extract decreased the neutrophil count and did not decrease the edema. Indomethacin and dexamethasone, used as reference anti-inflammatory drugs, decreased both edema and neutrophil migration.

The aqueous extract also inhibited cyclooxygenase activity, measured as prostaglandin E2 production from radiolabelled arachidonic acid. Chemical tests on the aqueous extract were positive for anthraglycosides, reducing sugars, and cardiotonic glycosides. The ethanol extract tested positive for saponins, carbohydrates, naphthoquinones, sterols, triterpenoids, and anthraquinones. The chloroform extract tested positive for delta-5 sterols and anthraquinones. The pharmacological conclusion in the paper is that gel extracts have anti-inflammatory activity and that the aqueous extract inhibits the arachidonic acid pathway through cyclooxygenase.

That is a direct mechanism statement: less PGE2 from arachidonic acid, less paw edema, fewer neutrophils, with the aqueous and chloroform fractions carrying the edema result. The ethanol fraction is a reminder that "aloe extract" is not one liquid. Solvent choice changed the result. An oral formula that lists aloe vera extract is listing the plant, and the edema result belongs to the aqueous and chloroform preparations Vázquez tested.

Bradykinin in an isolated tissue

Bautista-Pérez, Segura-Cobos, and Vázquez-Cruz looked at bradykinin, a peptide that drives inflammation and contracts smooth muscle. They tested Aloe barbadensis gel fractions against bradykinin-induced contraction of isolated rat ileum. Fraction F-1 reduced the maximal bradykinin response by 10 percent. The ammonium-sulfate precipitate F-55 reduced it by 22 percent. A Sephacryl-purified fraction, F-SH, inhibited the bradykinin effect by 60 percent. Further separation on Sephadex G-100 produced four fractions, and only F-GB retained the activity, inhibiting bradykinin contraction by 67 percent. The gel contains material that blocks a bradykinin response in this tissue bath, and the activity survived successive purification steps into one fraction.

Bradykinin blockade in ileum is not a scalp photograph. It is evidence that aloe gel holds a separable anti-bradykinin activity, which sits beside the cyclooxygenase result from Vázquez as a second inflammatory pathway. Two pathways, two papers, one plant. Neither paper is a 24-week hair-count trial.

Where the human skin trials sit

Hekmatpou, Mehrabi, Rahzani, and Aminiyan systematically reviewed clinical trials of Aloe vera gel, cream, or derivatives that included a control group, searching from 1990 through 2016. Twenty-three trials met their criteria. The uses covered in that set were prevention of skin ulcers and treatment of burn wounds, postoperative wounds, cracked nipples, genital herpes, psoriasis, and chronic wounds including pressure ulcers. The review's scope is topical skin care and wound outcomes. It is not an oral capsule trial and it is not a vertex hair-count trial.

Philpott and colleagues showed that interleukin-1 and tumour necrosis factor-alpha inhibit human hair follicle growth in culture and disturb keratinization. Inflammatory signals reach the follicle. Aloe's published anti-inflammatory results are the edema, neutrophil, PGE2, and bradykinin experiments, plus a 23-trial skin and wound literature. Connecting those facts is fair. Declaring that an oral aloe capsule reproduced the 23 topical trials is not, and this page does not say that.

Packs

Aloe vera extract is one of ten ingredients in Folli-Activ. The bottle holds 90 capsules and is branded MY NPM FOLLI-ACTIV. On this site, 1 bottle is RM169, 3 bottles are RM447, and 6 bottles are RM699 with free shipping. Checkout is by card. The extract is in the formula for the anti-inflammatory gel record: less carrageenan edema, less prostaglandin E2, and a purified fraction that cut a bradykinin contraction by 67 percent. Those numbers come from the papers named below. They describe aloe preparations used in those laboratories and clinics, not the Folli-Activ capsule as a tested wound drug.

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