ALOES, Aloe, in Medicine and Pharmacy, the inspissated Juice of a ferulaceous Plant of the same Name; much used as a purgative Remedy. See PURGATIVE.The Aloe Plant grows in divers Parts of the East and West Indies; and is also found in some Countries of Europe, as Spain, and particularly the Mountains of Sierra Morena.Its Leaves are green, very thick, hard, and prickly; yielding a kind of Cotton, whereof Laces may be made.Out of the middle of the Leaves arises a Stem, which bears the Flower, and the Fruit, the Seed whereof is very light and hemispherical.Dioscorides, Pliny, and the ancient Naturalists, seem only to have been acquainted with one Species of Aloes;which is the Aloe Vulgaris above described: But the late Travels into Asia, Africa, and America, have occasioned the Discovery of forty more sorts, unknown to Antiquity.Mr. Bradley assures us, he has seen above sixty several Kinds in the Physic-Garden at Amsterdam. So that Aloe is now become the Denomination of a Genus.—Among the Number, however, there are not above twelve that yield the purgative Juice above mentioned.The Juice or Extract of Aloes, is usually distinguished into three Kinds—The first, which is called Succotrine as being brought from Socotra, is the purest and most transparent; being friable, inodorous, black in the Lump, but of a beautiful yellow Colour when bruised.—It is brought in Skins from the Levant and East Indies. The second is called Hepatic, because of its Liver-colour:It is resinous, smells like Myrrh, has a yellow Colour when pounded, and is brought from Socotra.—Some confound this with the following sort; as, in effect, there are but two sorts commonly known in our Shops. The third is the most impure, the blackest, and the strongest.—It was formerly used by the Indians to pitch their Vessels withal: and is of little Use among us, excepting for Horses and Cattle; for which reason it is called Caballine, i.e.Horse-Aloes. Besides these, some mention another kind of Aloes prepared in Barbados, and brought over in large Gourds: but most Writers make this the Caballine kind. Some have imagined, that these differences of Aloes were owing only to the greater, or less Purification of the Juice: But this is a Mistake; it having been found that no Dissolutions, how often soever repeated, will change Hepatic into Succotrine, nor Caballine into Hepatic Aloes. The manner of preparing Aloes is very easy, there being nothing to do but to cut the Leaves of the Plant, and to expose the Juice that spontaneously oozes out of them to the sun, till it becomes of a proper Consistence.Aloes is extremely bitter, and purgative; externally applied, either in Substance or Tincture, it prevents Putrefaction and Gangrene.—Its Bitterness makes it so nauseous, that it is rarely used in liquid Forms, but is generally made into Pills, whereof half a Dram is an ordinary Dose.—Scarce any of the Officinal Pills are without this in their Composition.See PILL. Its cathartic Virtue, is best employed in watery, cold, and corpulent Constitutions, as it heats and attenuates;being bad for thin and hectic Constitutions. It is accounted efficacious in promoting the Menses; and is also good to destroy Worms.M. Boulduc, by his Analysis of Aloes, has found that the Succotrine sort contains half the Resin or sulphurous Part, but one third more of the saline Part, found in the Hepatic.Hence the Succotrine comes to be preferable for internal Uses, and the Hepatic for external.Aloe Rosata, is a Preparation of the Aloes Juice, made by dissolving it in Juice of Damask Roses, and evaporating it to the Consistence of a Paste. Then, more Juice is added, and the Evaporation repeated, again and again.—This is held a gentler and safer Cathartic than the Aloes alone.Aloes is also a kind of fragrant Indian Wood; thus called from its exceeding Bitterness, which resembles that of the Aloes Juice.This Aloes, called also Agallochum, is infinitely valued;and divers strange Fables have been invented as to the Origin of the Tree that yields it: Some feign that it grew in Paradise, and was only conveyed to us by means of the Rivers overflowing their Banks, and sweeping off the Trees in their way. Others suppose it to grow on inaccessible Mountains; where it is guarded by certain wild Beasts, etc.—The Siamese Ambassadors to the Court of France, in 1686, who brought a Present of this Wood from their Emperor, first gave the Europeans any consistent Account of it.The Tree grows in China, Lao, and Cochinchina; and is much about the Size and Figure of our Olive Trees.—The Trunk consists of three sorts of Wood, very different in Colour, and Properties: Immediately under the Bark it is black, dense and heavy, called by the Portuguese, Pao d’Aquila, q. d. Eagle-Wood. That next under this, is of a Tan-colour, light and veiny, resembling rotten Wood; and called Calambou.
The Heart, or innermost part, is called Zambac and more valued by the Indians than Gold itself. It affords a very strong, but agreeable smell; and is used as a Perfume, and is withal held a sovereign Remedy against the Palsy, Deliquiums, Weaknesses, &c.
'Tis the Calambou alone that is known among us. It is brought in small bits of a very fragrant scent; especially when cast on the Fire, where it melts like Wax. The best is of a blackish purple Colour, and so light as to swim on Water: It is hot and drying; and esteemed a great Strengthener of the Nerves.
Some pharmaceutical Writers make a Distinction between Aloes, Lignum Aloes, and Xylo Aloes; which may amount to the three Orders of Wood abovementioned. Though among us they are the same thing.
