Aloes
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the inspissated juice of the aloe. There are four principal kinds, two officinal. (1) Barbadoes aloes (aloe barbadensis), formed from the juice of the cut-leaf of aloe vulgaris. It is imported in gourds, and has a dull yellowish brown, opaque color, breaks with a conchoidal fracture, shows crystals dull under the microscope, has a nauseous odor, and is soluble in proof spirit. (2) Socotrine aloes (aloe socotrina), the produce of several species of aloes; it occurs in reddish brown masses, and breaks with a vitreous fracture. Its powder is a bright orange color. It has a fruity smell. It comes from Bombay. (3) Hepatic aloes, or East India aloes, non-officinal, is liver colored; its powder is yellow. (4) Cape aloes, the produce of aloe spicata and other non-officinal species, is a greenish brown color; this is given to horses. An inferior variety is called caballine aloes. Aloes acts as a purgative. ALOES WOOD (sometimes called also eagle wood, calambac, paradise wood, or agallochum), the heart wood of aquilaria ovata and aloes agallochum, trees of the order aquilariaceæ, natives of the tropical parts of Asia, and supposed to be the aloes of lign-aloes of the Bible. They are large, spreading trees. Aloes wood ontains a dark-colored, fragrant, resinresin intance, and is much prized in the East as a medicine, and for the pleasant odor which it diffuses in burning. A whi similar substance, still more esteemed, is obtained in the southeastern parts of Asia and the adjacent islands, from the central part of the trunk of aloexylon agallochum, of the natural order leguminosæ, sub-order cæsalpineæ. This tree is found in Cochin-China and the Moluccas, where a character of sacredness is attached to it. Its fragrant wood is not only much prized in the East as a perfume, but many medicinal virtues are ascribed to it. Napoleon I. used it as a perfume in his palaces. The fragrance continues undiminished for years rs. Lign- . aloes is a corruption of lignum aloes (aloes wood).
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921, aloes mattered chiefly as a bitter purgative drug, graded by colour, fracture and smell into Barbadoes, Socotrine, hepatic and Cape sorts. That trade has largely collapsed: the US Food and Drug Administration removed aloe and its active anthraquinone aloin from over-the-counter laxatives in 2002 for want of evidence of safety and effectiveness, and aloin is now stripped from products sold for consumption. What replaced it is the plant's other product, the clear inner-leaf gel of Aloe vera (the species Collier's called aloe vulgaris or barbadensis), which underpins a large modern cosmetics, sunburn-remedy and drinks industry. The aloes wood of the second half of the entry is today's agarwood or oud, whose fragrant resin is now known to form when the tree responds to fungal infection or injury; wild Aquilaria trees have been stripped so hard for the perfume trade that the genus is protected under the CITES convention.
Written for this edition, 2026.