Int. J. Med. Arom.

Plants, ISSN 2249 4340

REVIEW ARTICLE

Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 492-506, December 2013

Aloe vera L. processing and products: A review

V. K. CHANDEGARA1*, A. K. VARSHNEY2
1

Department of Processing and Food Engineering, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology,
Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh 362 001 (Gujarat), India
2
Polytechnic in Agro-Processing, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh 362 001 (Gujarat), India
*Corresponding author: Tel: +91-0285-2671018

Article History: Received 7th November 2013, Revised 27th December 2013, Accepted 28th December 2013.

Abstract: Use of Aloe vera in nutritional, pharmaceutical and cosmetic preparations draw attention for generation of
scientific information. Looking to the importance of biologically active components possessed by the leaves of the Aloe
vera plant and its wide spread use, it has become imperative that, the leaf should be processed with the aim of retaining
essential bioactive components. In this review paper, different processing aspects like harvesting, handling, transportation, Aloe vera gel expulsion, gel extraction and storage of gel were critically described from different references. Different product prepared from Aloe vera whole leaf and gel like food products Aloe juice, Aloe health drink, Aloe desert, etc
were reviewed. Aloe vera processing methods for gel expulsion by splitting of leaf, roller method, crushing of whole leaf,
hand filleting methods and stabilization are described with various references. Present processing techniques aims at producing best quality aloe products but end aloe products contain very little or virtually no active ingredients. Hence, appropriate processing techniques should be employed during processing in order to extend the use of Aloe vera gel.
Keywords: Aloe vera gel expulsion; Aloe vera gel expulsion extraction; filleting; leaf splitter method purification; stabilization.

Introduction
Medicinal plant has specific property and
specific use owing to their biological group of
compounds. Several species of the genus aloe
has been in use under the common name of aloe
viz. Aloe vera, Aloe barbadensis, Aloe ferox,
Aloe chinensis, Aloe indica, Aloe peyrii, etc.
Amongst these Aloe vera Linn syn. Aloe
barbadensis Miller is accepted unanimously as
the correct botanical source of aloe. Aloe vera a
member of the lily (Liliaceae) family is a spiky,
succulent, perennial plant and a native to warm
dry regions. It is popularly grown as indoors
plant and cultivated almost everywhere in the
world, both as a houseplant and for its medicinal
qualities. There are about 300 identified species.
Aloe vera Gel is the colorless mucilaginous gel
obtained from the parenchymatous cells in the
fresh leaves of Aloe vera (L) Burm. f.
(Liliaceae) (Gilman, 1999; Moore, 2001).

Aloe vera Latex (Aloin, a bitter tasting purgative, is destructive to healthy tissue and cells)
is obtained from specialized cells known as
pericyclictubules that occur just beneath the epidermis or rind of the leaves.
Aloe vera plants products are biologically
active and hence their post harvest handling and
processing needs great care. The time, temperature and sanitation are the prime requirement for
processing to put the Aloe vera plant products in
active form. The most important factor is the
how to extract the gel from Aloe vera leaf and to
preserve it for long duration for its utilization in
cosmetic and pharmaceutical products.
Handling of Aloe vera leaves
Aloe vera barbadensis can grow up to 100
cm height, although most specimens are 30 to
60 cm in height. It has thick leaves that grow in
a rosette shape. The parenchyma cells of the

*Corresponding author: (E-mail) vkchandegara <@> jau.in

2013 Copyright by the Authors, licensee Open Access Science Research Publisher.

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leaves contain large quantities of pulp. The

fleshy leaves with serrated edges that arise from
a central base and grow to nearly 30 50 cm
long have 10 cm width at the base.
The plants can be harvested every 6 to 8
weeks by removing 3 to 4 leaves per plant. Aloe
vera leaves are normally sensitive to subfreezing temperatures The weather conditions are
highly affect the Aloe vera processing schedule.
Pulling back on the green leaf and cutting at the
white base carry out the harvesting of the Aloe
vera plant. To avoid bio-degradation the Aloe
vera leaf is harvested and pulled carefully from
the mother plant so as not to break the rind.
Biological activity loss is due to the microbial decay of the gel. The first exposure of the
inner gel to microbes is when the leaves are
harvested from the plant. Leaves in which the
base is not intact and sealed will greatly increase
the microbial counts in the finished product.
Higher level of microbial counts significantly
reduces the biological activity in the product.
The other major source of microbial contamination comes from the rind of the leaf. The harvested leaves were kept in the icebox at 4 -5 0C
and transported to the processing unit.
Aloe Vera leaf characteristics and composition
Physical structure of Aloe vera leaf
The Aloe Leaf consists of three layers:
A. The outer thick rind
B. A viscous, jelly like mucilage layer into
which the vascular bundles, attached to the inner
surface of the rind, protrude.
C. The fillet proper, which has structural integrity consisting of hexagonal structures containing
the fillet fluid. This is the water storage area for
the plant.
Chemical composition of Aloe vera leaf
The main constituents of the Aloe vera leaf
are: (i) Aloin: It is an irritant laxative contained
in the yellow sap of Aloe, which is a constituent
of the Anthraquinone complex, (ii) MethanolPrecipitable Solids (MPS): When alcohols are
Chandegara and Varshney

added to Aloe solutions about 20-25 % of the

total solids come out of solution or
'precipitate'. The chemical constituents of Aloe
vera barbadensis (Joshi, 1998) consists of mainly polysaccharides, glycoprotein and salts of
organic Acids. The polysaccharides represent
about one-half to two-thirds of the MPS or
about 10-15% of the total solids. (iii) Polysaccharides: There are over 200 constituents in Aloe vera, the single most important constituent
being the polysaccharides.
Biologically active chemical constituents of Aloe vera leaves
The gel contains 98.5 % water having pH of
4.5 and also contains many polysaccharides
such as Glucomannan, Acemannan etc., in active form in the leaves of Aloe vera.
Glucomannan is a good moisturizer and mainly
used in many cosmetics products (Henry, 1979)
whereas Acemannan, the major carbohydrate
fraction in the gel, is a water-soluble long chain
mannose polymer which accelerates wound
healing, modulates immune function and antiviral effects.
Processing parameters of Aloe vera
Time, temperature and sanitation (TTS) are
necessary to preserve these biological activities.
The TTS Aloe Process not only preserves the
natural biological activities of Aloe vera but also
enhances the physical stability of the finished
products.
Timing of process
Leaves show losses of biological activity
beginning at six hours following harvest when
the leaves are stored at ambient temperature.
Most biological activities are completely lost
after 24 hours at ambient temperatures. The
losses of activity appear to be the result of enzymatic activity after the leaf is removed from
the plant. In fact, it has been shown that the gel,
once extracted from the leaf, has greater stability than gel, which is left in the leaf. This means
that shipping of leaves, even at refrigerated
temperatures, will result in loss of biological
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activity. The overall timing of TTS production

phases is extremely critical. The processing
must be completed within 36 hours of harvesting the leaves (http://www. aloecorp.com).
Process Temperature
The Aloe gel processing temperature plays
very important role for gel quality for cosmetic
and medicinal use.
A. Flash Cooling
As a crucial step to preserve biological activity, the gel is cooled to below 5 0C in ten to
fifteen seconds following the gel extraction.
Rapid cooling not only slows enzymatic and
microbial deterioration of the gel, but also aids
in reducing the microbial counts in the product.
B. Pasteurization
Biological activity remains essentially intact
when the gel is heated at 65 0C for periods of
less than fifteen minutes. Extended periods or
higher temperatures will result in greatly reduced activity levels. The best method of pasteurization is HTST (high temperature short
time), which exposes the gel to elevated temperatures for periods of one to three minutes. Once
heated, the gel is flashing cooled to 5 0C or below.
C. Concentration
The gels obtained using the pasteurization
and flash-cooling methods can be concentrated
under vacuum without the loss of biological activity. The concentration operation must be conducted under 125 mm mercury vacuum at temperatures below 50 0C and must not exceed two
minutes. Higher vacuums and temperatures will
cause activity loss as will extend concentration
times.
D. Drying
The concentrated product can then be freeze
dried at temperatures between -45 0C and 30 0C
or can be spray dried with product temperatures
below 60 0C without losses in biological activity. For export purposes (especially for cosmetic
industry), dried Aloe gel is favoured. Gel fillets
can be directly dried by dehydration under a low
heat. However, gel liquid is mostly dried either
Chandegara and Varshney

by spray drying or freeze drying (Waller et al.,

2004). Freeze-drying involves placing frozen
gel under a high vacuum. Water sublimes from
the frozen gel as it gradually heats. Spray drying
is a two step process. The process begins with
matrix development. The matrix is pumped
through a spray dryer chamber. Fluid is sprayed
as a fine mist out a series of nozzles through this
chamber. The chamber is heated between 50 to
90 0C causing water to evaporate and the aloe
matrix to dry. With temperature playing a crucial role in maintaining natural plant products,
freeze-drying is favoured. Heat is not added so
that chemical transformations are minimized
and the biological activity of the gel is not altered as may be the case with spray drying.
Freeze drying of the Aloe vera fillets were at
low temperature under vacuum found the maximum value of rehydration ratio and water holding capacity (Andani, 2010).
Osmotic drying of Aloe vera (Aloe
barbadensis Miller) cubes were osmosed for 4
h in sugar syrup of different concentration and
temperatures at constant syrup to fruit ratio of
5:1. Drying of Osmosed and unosmosed Aloe
vera samples at different temperature with constant air velocity, observed water loss and solid
gain during osmo-drying. (Simal et al. 2000,
Chang et al. 2006, Vega et al.2007, Segovia et
al. 2009 and Pisalkar et.al. 2011).
Processing of Aloe vera
The potential use of Aloe vera products often involves some type of processing, like heating, dehydration and grinding (Chang et al.,
2006). Unfortunately, because of improper processing procedure aloe products contain very
little or virtually no active ingredients
(Ramachandra and Rao, 2010), so it has become
very important to evolve a better method of
preservation for increasing the shelf life and
maintaining the quality of Aloe vera gel.
Washing of Aloe vera leaf
When Aloe vera leaves are harvested, it contains dirt and other impurities. The yellow fluid
secretion from the harvested leaves should be
completely removed from the leaf for its prohttp://www.openaccessscience.com
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cessing and purity of products. The leaves were

thoroughly washed with fresh water with mechanical washer. In the Aloe vera processing
industry, leaves are initially washed in a sterilizing solution, a 200 ppm solution of sodium hypochlorite (Waller et al., 2004). If leaves are
extremely muddy when delivered to the gel factory they are pre-washed in a basin of deionised
water. In some cases, the pre-wash step involves
scouring the leaf rind with soft brushes
(McAnalley, 1990).
Pre-treatment for Aloe vera processing
The Aloe vera leaves are preconditioned by
sun drying, shade drying and by steaming. The
study revealed that, two days sun or shade drying, yielded highest crude gel recovery and lesser residual time without aloin contain as compared to the fresh leaves el. They have also revealed that the matured leaves lead more crude
gel recovery as compared to immature leaves.
The immature leaves take more time in processing by manually as well as mechanically for
gel extraction (Anonymous, 2008a).
Study on gel extraction efficiency by taking
different pretreatments such as brine, lye, water
and without treatment i.e., control found that
scrapper method with brine treatment is most
suitable for extraction of gel that gives 93.42 %
gel extraction efficiency (Anonymous, 2008c).
Peeling of Aloe vera leaf
The removal of outer skin and rind is the
most tedious operation for mechanical machine
due the shape of Aloe vera leaf. Precautions
should be taken to avoid contamination of inner
part with exudates secretion to maintain purity
of products.
Hand filleting
In order to avoid contaminating the internal
fillet with the yellow sap, the lower portion i.e.
25 mm of the leaf base (the white part attached
to the large rosette stem of the plant), the tapering point (50 100 mm) of the leaf top, and the
short, sharp spines located along the leaf margins are removed by a sharp knife. The muciChandegara and Varshney

lage layer below the green rind avoiding the

vascular bundles and the top rind is also removed with the help of knife. The bottom rind
is similarly removed.
The hand - filleting method of processing
Aloe leaves was developed to avoid contaminating the internal fillet with the yellow sap. In this
method the rind is removed by using sharp
knife, keeping anthraquinone level low, but in
this process the most of the mucilage is left on
the working table. During processing operation,
the lower 25 mm of the leaf base (the white part
attached to the large rosette stem of the plant),
the tapering point (50 100 mm) of the leaf top,
and the short, sharp spines located along the leaf
margins are removed with the help of sharp
knife. The knife is then introduced into the mucilage layer below the green rind to remove top
rind and similarly the bottom rind is removed
(www.bonasana.com).
Mechanical filleting method
Mechanical filleting is the most commonly
used method in the industry for gel extraction
from the Aloe vera leaves (Obrien, 2005). This
process takes place on a conveyer belt, equipped
with rollers and blades. Initially, the leaf (upper
surface facing downwards) is passed over a
blade mounted on a table. The upper rind is cut
away in one swift movement. The exposed gel
surface is then longitudinally sliced from the
upper to lower surface but not completely
through the lower rind surface so that the curved
lower rind becomes flat. The lower rind can
now be easily removed by passing it over the
blade as before. The gel slices are then collected. The next step in gel processing is the removal of cellular material from the gel. The gel fillets are chopped into small chips and de-pulped
using sieves3. It can also be liquidized as in the
fruit juice industry and filtered to remove cellular material. The liquid gel is obtained, only after the removal of fiber. The gel in the crude
form is sold as a commercial product. For the
long term storage the gel is mixed with activated
charcoal for purification and then filtered. It can
also be preserved, by putting some stabilizing
agent. The treatment with activated charcoal
ensures that any anthraquinone compounds in
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the gel are removed. In the A. vera industry,

0.05 % w/v charcoal is added to 2000 L gel, approximately gel takes one hour to pass through
Celite Filteraide for filteration.

pair of rollers with variable apertures are arranged to accommodate the varying width and
thickness of the Aloe vera leaf. The purity is not
maintained in this method of peeling as there is
mixed of outer exudates with inner pulp.

Whole leaf processing

In the roller method of gel expulsion, the

leaves are passed through rollers and the fillet
pops out, same time more pressure is applied
to the pericyclic tubules for gel expulsion. A
low cost gel extractor had developed comprising
of two roller having diameter 118 mm and
length of 245 mm with one roller has continuous
slope (Anonymous, 2008a). Similarly, low cost
Aloe juice extractor has also developed (Anonymous, 2008b). Similar machine developed having two stainless steel roller rotated with chain
and sprocket (Anonymous, 2008c).

In this process, the base and tip are removed

and then the leaf is cut into sections and ground
into particulate slurry. The material is then
treated with chemicals, which breaks down the
hexagonal structure of the fillet releasing the
constituents. Then by expression and extraction,
the undesirable elements can be selectively removed, while maximizing the desired constituents. This process, performed properly, can produce a constituent-rich juice (generally containing 3 times or more constituents than hand filleted juice), which should be virtually free of
the laxative anthraquinones; this process was
developed
in
the
1980s
(http://www.wholeleaf.com). The data of hand
and whole leaf filleting which reveals that the
quantity of desirable polysaccharides is 2.5 to 3
times higher as compare to hand filleting methods (Table 1).
In the method of whole leaf processing, the
whole leaf is coarsely chopped and the rind particles are removed by passing through filters of
various porosities. The anthraquinone are removed by using charcoal. This method produces
a product rich in carbohydrates but also much
higher in mineral salts than the other methods
(Danhof, 2000).
Table 1: Effect of leaf processing method on
yields and constituents.
Process Fraction

Hand Filleting Whole Leaf

(%)
(%)
Total solids (Without pre0.45 0.65
1.30 3.50
servatives or additives)
Polysaccharides
0.12
0.16

A 60 80 kg leaves/h capacity, Aloe vera

gel (fillet) extractor was designed and developed
by providing adjustable gap in between the
crushing rollers, so that only the gel is just extracted and over crushing of the leaves can be
avoided(Anonymous, 2008d) .
An apparatus for extraction of uncontaminated Aloe vera gel from the leaves of Aloe vera
plants had developed in which the harvested
leaves of the Aloe vera plants are placed between a pair of endless moving belts. The leaves
are passing through a number of crushing rollers
arranged in a desired pattern. The rollers first
crush the core of the leaf to enable the gel to
flow internally while a second set of rollers extrudes the gel from the leaf. The crushed leaf
and extruded gel is then fall on a drain grate to
enable gravity flow for the separation of gel
from the crushed leaves. The proper slope is
provided to the drainage grate, so that the leaves
will slowly move across the drain grate to enable separation of the gel. The leaves are removed from the gel collection area before it
mixes with the flowing aloin to avoid contamination (Tumlinson, 1985).

Source: http://www.wholeleaf.com
Aloe vera leaf splitter
Roller squeezing method
In this method of peeling the Aloe vera leaf
is passed between two parallel rollers rotating in
opposite direction and at different speed. The
Chandegara and Varshney

Aloe vera leaf splitter is very advance method of peeling in which, leafs are spitted by mechanical machines that simulates hand filleting
operation.
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A thin wire is used to split the Aloe vera

leaf, which can be placed at varying distances
from the vascular bundles. The wire is allowed
to go too close to the rind, the extracted gel will
contain more anthraquinone as well as more of
the mucilage, if it is too close to gel fillet, and
then less anthraquinone as well as less mucilage
will be obtained.
Aloe vera plant leaf to a cutting knife of developed apparatus. The apparatus is designed to
transport the leaf on an endless belt conveyor on
which the leaf is laid down flat and lengthwise
on the conveyor belt. A second endless belt
conveyor travels in the same direction and at the
same speed as the first endless belt conveyor but
is disposed at a right angle to the first endless
belt conveyor at the feed end of the apparatus.
The first endless belt conveyor in its travel is
slowly twisted towards the second endless belt
conveyor and by the time the first endless belt
conveyor has reached the end of its travel, the
leaf has been turned from a flat condition to a
vertical position and is sandwiched between the
two sets of endless conveyor belts. The leaf now
standing on its edge between the aforesaid sets
of endless belt conveyors, the same is fed into
the apparatus where the leaf are cut into two
half and thereafter the gel within the leaf will be
squeezed and recovered (Thompson, 1983).
In developed a method and apparatus for extracting gel from Aloe vera leaves without contaminating the gel with toxic juices, the Aloe
vera leaves are washed, trimmed, and fed to the
hopper. The leaves will undergo to and through
motion of a blade, which longitudinally bisects
the leaves. The split leaves are then passed
through pressing rollers, which advance the rind
but retain the gel that falls from the pressing
rollers into a collection pan (Cottrell, 1984).
An elongated conveyor assembly on which
an Aloe vera leaf is lengthwise disposed and advanced from one end of the conveyor to the other end. The first and second cutting stations are
spaced along the conveyor assembly. They remove the opposite ends of an Aloe vera leaf and
also trim the serrated edges of the leaf. In addition to this, the third and fourth stations are disposed along the conveyor assembly between the
second station and the discharge end of the conveyor assembly and the third station includes
Chandegara and Varshney

structure for peeling the lower rind panel from

an Aloe vera leaf whose ends and side marginal
portions have been removed while the fourth
station includes structure for removing the gel
layer of the leaf disposed on the upper rind panel thereof and exposed by the removal of the
lower rind panel of the leaf (De Gray, 1986).
Aloe vera gel extracting apparatus, which
consists of a body, transmission system, peeling
device and a driving mechanism. The transmission system comprises an upper and a lower
part. The upper part of the system connected to
the body through the belt sheave axle at the
right end and the belt sheave axle at the left end
connected to the hanger trestle in synchronous
vertical movement with it. The lower part of the
system connected to the body at both ends
through the sheave axles. The peeling device
consists of an edge cutting blade and a peeling
blade. The edge of cutting blade is set in the slot
between the two groups of belt. The upper peeling blade is connected to the hanger trestle and
the lower peeling blade is connected directly to
the body (Xiaozhou, 2000).
Data comparison of various processing methods
The data comparison of various processing
methods and the effect on yield (total solids),
aloin concentration, and the distribution of sizes
of constituents (Table 3). The whole leaf method can produce an Aloe juice, which is rich in
total solids however; the aloin concentration is
at a very low acceptable level.
Table 2: Comparison of various processing
methods and constituents.
Method of
Preparation
Hand- filleting
Roller
Leaf Splitter
Whole Leaf

pH Aloin, Per cent,

Per cent,
(ppm)
H20
Total Solids
4.27
6
99.25
0.48
4.30 32
99.61
0.39
4.24 18
99.61
0.42
4.09
1
98.62
1.38

Source : http://wholeleaf.com
Commercial production
Total process of Aloe vera

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In this process, aloe leaves are hand filleted

by the traditional method. Then the green rinds
and the mucilage pulp are processed separately.
A combination of the products obtained by these
two procedures, produces a product called Total
Process Aloe. Total Process Aloe contains considerably higher concentrations of total solids,

calcium, magnesium, and malic acid, which are

virtually free from undesirable laxative
anthraquinones. The International Aloe Science
Council for certification recommends using the
total process Aloe, which retains major portion
of desirable constituents.

Figure 1: Commercial Aloe vera processing flow chart.

ALOECORP Process
The outermost matured three leaves are cut
from every plant. The leaves are gathered in
Chandegara and Varshney

boxes, which are transported immediately to the

production facility. The incoming harvested
leaves are fed into the primary washer located
just outside the production room. The produchttp://www.openaccessscience.com
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tion room is having stainless steel conveyor system that quickly moves harvested leaves from
the primary wash tank to processing room. The
conveyors propel leaves to the mechanical leaf
washer, then to the cutting area, and finally
through
the
gel
expulsion
machines
(http://www. aloecorp.com).
The other processes which are commonly
used to obtain gel in the Aloe industry is by alcohol precipitation. In this process, 20 gallons
of Aloe gel are pumped into 100 gallon tanks,
and then ethanol (80 gallons) is added to the Aloe gel and stirred for 20-30 minutes. The alcohol-Aloe gel mixture is then left for conditioning for four hours. The clear supernatant that
forms is decanted or siphoned off without disturbing the precipitate on the bottom of the tank.
The solution is then placed into centrifuging
buckets and centrifuged. The precipitate formed
is collected and washed with fresh ethanol. This
fraction is then freeze-dried.
Gel extraction process from Aloe vera pulp
The gel extraction from Aloe vera leaves,
had been carried out by removing of its exudates
and its mucilage was scraped out with blunt
edged knife. This mucilage was stirred vigorously in a blender to make it uniform. This solution was strained through a muslin cloth and filtered. This uniform solution was extracted for
cold- extracted gel (CEG) and hot extracted gel
(HEG).
Cold extracted gel (CEG)
This solution was acidified with Hydro chloric acid (HCL) having pH 3.50 and the crude gel
were precipitated out from the extract by adding
slowly 95 % alcohol while stirring. The gel was
obtained by centrifugation.

Gel extraction by Centrifugation

In this method the whole leaf after removal
of the peel the colourless hydroparenchyma
was ground in a blender and centrifuged at
10,000 x g for 30 min at 4 0C to remove the fibers. Two other patented processes to obtain
gel are commonly used in the aloe industry. The
first is a method to extract gel polysaccharides
by alcohol precipitation (www.bonasana.com).
As described in the (McAnalley, 1990) patent,
20 gallons of aloe gel are pumped into 100 gallon tanks. Ethanol (80 gallons) is added to the
aloe gel and stirred for 20-30 minutes. The alcohol-aloe gel mixture is then left to stand for
four hours. The clear supernatant that forms is
decanted or siphoned off, without disturbing the
precipitate on the bottom of the tank. The solution is then placed into centrifuging buckets and
centrifuged. The precipitate formed is collected
and washed with fresh ethanol. This fraction is
then freeze-dried. The second process is used in
the Aloe ferox industry in combination with alcohol precipitation developed (Botha, 1994).
The pulp remaining after liquidised aloe gel is
filtered is used for this process. This pulp is
treated with sodium citrate that results in the
freeing of polysaccharides from calcium. Water
is added and the mixture is heated. This mixture
is then filtered, and the liquid fraction, which
contains the calcium free polysaccharides, is
known as aloe jelly. Careful storage of gel
(liquid or powder) is important to prevent loss
of quality. Relative humidity and temperature
affect product quality and shelf life (He et al.,
2004). Freeze dried gel has to be packaged in
airtight containers or kept under dry conditions
as it rehydrates rapidly (Femenia et al., 2003).
A developed process for extraction of gel
by manual peeling of leaf and principle of centrifugation applied is shown in Figure 2.
Purification of Aloe vera gel

Hot extracted gel (HEG)

Material left after passing the blended solution through muslin cloth, was repeatedly treated with hot water until the complete extractions
of gel was affected. The crude gel (HEG) was
prepared as described as above.
Chandegara and Varshney

The next step in gel processing is the removal of cellular material from the gel. Gel fillets are chopped into small chips and de-pulped
using sieves. Gel fillets can also be liquidised as
in the fruit juice industry and filtered to remove
cellular material. After removal of the fibre, only the liquid gel remains. The gel in this crude
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Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants

form is sold as a commercial product, but may

also be mixed with activated charcoal, filter
pressed, stabilized (preserved) and dried.
Treatment with activated charcoal ensures that

500
Aloe vera: a review

any anthraquinone compounds in the gel are

removed. In the A. vera industry, 0.05 % w/v
charcoal is added to 2000 L gel.

Figure 2: Aloe vera Gel Extraction by Centrifugation Process Flow chart (Chandegara, 2005).
Aloe vera gel characteristics and composition
Physico-chemical properties of Aloe vera gel
Following companies had reported the
physico-chemical properties of Aloe vera gel
Chandegara and Varshney

and shown in Table 4. This meets or exceeds the

standards established by the International Aloe
Science Council's (IASC) certification program
for the determination of purity.
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Table 3: Fractionation of Aloe vera Gel Extraction Process (Chandegara, 2005).

Aloe leaf weight 1.000 kg
Aloe pulp weight 0.501 kg (50.04 % of Aloe vera leaf)
Crude gel recovery 0.211 kg (42.17 % of pulp)
Pure gel recovery 0.106 kg (50.17 % of crude gel recovery)

Chemical composition of Aloe vera gel

Aloe vera gel has a biologically active polysaccharide known as acetylated mannose, or
acemannan. Acemannan is one of many saccharides contained in Aloe vera. Some of the others
are arabinose, cellulose, galactose, mannose,
and xylose. Prostaglandins are a third important
set of compounds, and are thought to play a major role in wound healing. Aloe vera also contains fatty acids, enzymes, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and other substances.

Table 4: Physico-chemical properties of Aloe vera gel.

Test
Appearance
*Absorbance @ 400nm
Refractive Index
Specific Gravity
pH Value
Total Solids

AloeCORP
http://www. aloecorp.com
Clear Yellow / Green Liquid
NMT 0.500
1.3340-1.3355
1.0030-1.0070
3.5-4.7
NLT 0.46% by weight

M/s Delta International

http://www.garudaint.com

1.33789 - 1.34390
1.0221 - 1.0339
3.5 - 4.7

Table 5: Aloe gel composition.

Mono and polysaccharides (50-60% of solids)
(Specific concentrations have not yet been determined)
Ployhexanoses
Hexans
Xylose
Arabinose
Galactose
Glucose
Amino acids (ppm)
Lysine
5-6
Histadine
2.8-3.3
Arginine
4.5-5.5
Threonine
5-6
Aspartic Acid
13-15
Serine
6-7
Glutamic Acid
13.5-15.5
Proline
8-9
Analine
1.0-1.3
Glycine
7-8
Valine
6.5-7.0
Methionine
1.5-2.0
Isoleucine
3.5-4.0
Leucine
8.5-9.0
Tyrosine
2.8-3.3
Pheylalanine
4.3-4.7
Vitamins (mg per 100ml)
B-1
6-7
B-2
6-7
C
47-61
Niacinamide
30-37
B-6
3.0-3.7
Choline
9.5-11.2
Enzymes (per 100 ml)
Amylase
1100-1600 units
Lipase
600-800 units
0.11g / 100 gr
0.09g / 100 gr
Protein
Fat
0.25%
0.10%
Ash
Crude fiber
3.3/100 gr
Calories
Source: http://www.garudaint.com
Quality parameters of Aloe vera gel

A. Fiber content

The quality parameters such as fiber content,

viscosity, refractive index, optical density and
total soluble solid plays an important role in
judging the quality and purity of extracted gel
from Aloe vera leaf.

The fiber content is directly related to the

purity of gel and become the criteria of efficiency of gel filtration unit. More fiber content, suggests poor filtration operation. The difference
between crude gel recovery and pure gel recov-

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502
Aloe vera: a review

Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants

ery gives the amount of fiber in crude gel. It had

been found that the fibre content 0.074 to 0.088
% of fresh weight of pulp (Wang and Strong,
1993).
B. Viscosity
Viscosity of gel is very important factor for
deciding quality in terms of activities of biological compounds. The viscosity decreases as the
time passes. After harvest of Aloe vera leaf, the
viscous pseudoplastic nature of Aloe vera gel,
mainly due to the presence of polysaccharides
composed of a mixture of acetylated
glucomannans is lost shortly after extraction,
apparently due to enzymatic degradation
(Gowda et al., 1979). These shows there are
some biological activities, which related to the
viscoelastic behavior of gel.
C. Refractive index
Refractive index is the physical property of
gel determines the purity of gel as compared to
double distilled water. Gel with lowest refractive index, is the best treatment for extraction
process.
D. Optical density
Optical density is the physical property of
gel determines the purity of gel as compared to
double distilled water. Gel with lowest optical
density, is the best treatment for extraction process. More optical density indicates the impurities in the extracted gel. The optical density of
1.020 to 1.437 (abs) for Aloe vera leaves were
reported (Wang and Strong, 1993).
Stabilization of Aloe vera gel
Many of the greatest benefits of Aloe vera
can be lost in the processing unless great care is
taken to stabilize the gel. Aloe vera gel, like
most natural juices, both fruit and vegetable, is
an unstable product when extracted and is subject to discoloration and spoilage from contamination by microorganisms. Stabilization of Aloe
vera gel with Sulphated polysaccharides of the
red microalga Porphyridium aerugineum is carChandegara and Varshney

ried out. The solution was then stored at room

temperature for 6 months for observations of the
structure and homogeneity of the polysaccharides. Addition of the algal sulphated polysaccharide resulted in a homogeneous stable product: the algal polysaccharide may inhibit degradation and also browning of the aloe polysaccharide (Yaron, 1992).
Product preparations from Aloe vera
Aloe vera is an industrial crop and in the
food industry it has been utilized for the preparation of health food drinks, beverages like tea,
milk, ice-cream and confectionary (Seoshin et
al., 1995). Aloe vera gel also finds application in
cosmetic and toiletry industry for the preparation of creams, lotions, soaps, shampoos and
facial cleaners (Grindlay and Reynolds, 1986).
Choosing effective Aloe vera products can be
challenging. Once a leaf is cut, enzymes start to
break down some of the long chain sugars
which make Aloe vera gel an effective healing
product, so it is important for the plant to have
been properly handled and stabilized. Commercial, stabilized gel products may not work as
well as the fresh gel, but cold processing is
thought to best retain the beneficial properties.
Aloe vera juice is most often the form of the gel
that is used internally.
Aloe vera dessert
Basically, the aloe desserts processing process is simple which involved sorting, grading,
washing, peeling, cutting, cooking in syrup,
adding flavor, packing, and pasteurizing. The
most difficult part of processing is the removal
of aloe and retains its original taste and its marketability. The flow chart of commercialized
processing of Aloe vera is shown in Figure 3
(Herlina, 2001).
Salve: Remove the thin outer skin and process
the leaves in a blender, add 500 units of vitamin
C powder to each cup and store in refrigerator
(Herlina, 2001).

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Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants

Dried Juice: Aloe vera juice containing the

equivalent of 360 - 900 mg of dried sap is recommended by most herbalists per day (Herlina,
2001).
Aloe tea and fibre tablets: Dry aloe leaves are
harvested and crushed to form tea leaves. A delicious herbal tea can be brewed. Tea leaves are
pressed to form fibre tablets (Herlina, 2001).

503
Aloe vera: a review

The processing of Aloe vera requires critical

attention in time, temperature and sanitation.
The processing and handling should be carried
out at low temperature to preserve its active ingredients. The quality of Aloe vera gel should
be evaluated in terms of quality parameters like
viscosity of gel, optical density, and refractive
index. Aloe vera gel expulsion by splitting of
leaf, roller squeezing method, crushing of whole
leaf, hand filleting methods and mechanical filleting methods. Aloe vera gel should be freeze
dried to maintain biological properties as it contains active compounds. After extracting the gel,
the stabilization of gel is inevitable for its long
duration storage and product formulations. Present processing techniques aims at producing
best quality aloe products but end aloe products
contain very little or virtually no active ingredients. Hence, appropriate processing techniques
should be employed during processing in order
to extend the use of Aloe vera gel.

Figure 3: Processing process of Aloe vera

Dessert.
Conclusions
A review from different cited reference on
processing of Aloe vera leaf gel has revealed
some useful information. Aloe vera plant has
potential in pharmaceutical, nutritional and
cosmetic industries. The leaf of Aloe vera plant
contains biological active compounds, which
needs careful harvesting and handling. Temperature is the main factor for processing of Aloe vera and particularly gel extraction process.

Chandegara and Varshney

Figure 4: Flow chart with mass balance for

preparation of jelly from Aloe vera gel (Anonymous, 2008a).

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Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants

504
Aloe vera: a review

Figure 5: Flow chart with mass balance for preparation of Aloe vera gel blended RTS Beverage
(Annonymous, 2008a).
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