One of the most respectable plants today for its medicinal value is Aloe Vera. This succulent plant is widely cultivated due to its curative properties as well as innumerable health benefits as we shall see in this article.
Health Benefit 1: Source of Vitamins & Minerals
Aloe Vera is rich in various vitamins such as A, C, E, folic acid, choline, B1, B2, B3 (niacin) and B6. Notably, Aloe Vera juice is one of the few plant juices known to contain B12. Aloe Vera Juice also contains minerals such as calcium, zinc, magnesium, selenium, chromium, sodium, iron, copper, potassium and manganese.
Health Benefit 2: Rich in Acids & Fatty Acids
Aloe Vera juice is reputed to contain 8 out of the 22 amino acids essential in the body, though the total number of amino acids in the ale Vera juice is believed to between 18 and 20(inclusive of the essential ones). Aloe Vera juice also contains other acids such as oleic,palmitic, stearic linoleic, linolenic, myristic and caprylic. The HCL cholesterol, campesterol, and B-sitosterol are the three fatty acids found in aloe Vera. These three are crucial in combating allergies and indigestion in the body.
Health Benefit 3 :Adaptogen
Aloe Vera improves the body’s ability to adapt to environmental changes as well as resist diseases. It aids in triggering body’s defense and adaptive mechanism and enhances the body’s capacity to deal with physical, emotional and environmental changes.
Health Benefit 4: Aids in Digestion
The juice from Aloe Vera assists in soothing as well as cleansing the gut hence improving digestion. It helps combat constipation or diarrhea whilst at the same time aiding in the regulation of waste disposal. As a result, it helps relieve conditions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), hence maintaining a healthy intestinal flora. Being a vermifuge, it assists in eradicating intestinal worms in the body.
Health Benefit 5: Detoxifier
As a gelatinous plant food, Aloe Vera juice gels through the intestine, absorbing poison along the way hence aiding in their removal. By eliminating these wastes, aloe Vera juice ranks with seaweed and Chia as a great detoxifier in the body.
Health Benefit 6: Balances Body PH
People are required to take 80% of acidic food and 20% alkaline foods. Being an alkaline forming food, aloe Vera juice assists in countering the acidity in the body. Diseases rare occur in alkaline environments, a fact that supports the importance of the juice in the body. Aloe Vera juice is therefore vital in restoring the body’s PH.
Health Benefit 7: Cardiovascular Health
It has been found through research that an injection of aloe Vera in the bloodstream boosts transportation of oxygen in the red blood cells. There haven’t been a lot of studies conducted in this but there has been some research to show that Aloe Vera extract injected into the blood, greatly multiplies the oxygen transportation and diffusion capabilities of the red blood cells. It also aids in oxidation of blood, reduces cholesterol and an s result, reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease attack.
Health Benefit 8: Immune Booster
Aloe Vera boosts the immune system due to the presence of polysaccharides in aloe Vera juice which induces macrophages( white blood cells of your immune system) to combat viruses. Over and above that, aloe Vera contains anti-oxidants which hinder free radicals from triggering the aging process. Being an anti-pyretic, aloe Vera juice also helps in fighting body fever.
Image Credit : Pava Via Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Italy
