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 Agricultur-
al 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, transporta-
tion, Aloe vera gel expulsion, gel extraction and storage of gel were critically described from different references. Differ-
ent 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 pro-
ducing best quality aloe products but end aloe products contain very little or virtually no active ingredients. Hence, ap-
propriate 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; stabi-
lization.

Introduction Aloe vera Latex (Aloin, a bitter tasting pur-

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).
gative, is destructive to healthy tissue and cells)
is obtained from specialized cells known as
pericyclictubules that occur just beneath the ep-
idermis 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, tempera-
ture 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 http://www.openaccessscience.com

2013 Copyright by the Authors, licensee Open Access Science Research Publisher. ijmap@openaccessscience.com
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-
ND 3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0)

Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants
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 subfreez-
ing 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 micro-
bial 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 contamina-
tion comes from the rind of the leaf. The har-
vested leaves were kept in the icebox at 4 -5 0C
and transported to the processing unit.
Aloe Vera leaf characteristics and composi-
tion
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 integri-
ty 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) Methanol-
Precipitable Solids (MPS): When alcohols are
Chandegara and Varshney
493
Aloe vera: a review
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 main-
ly 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) Polysac-
charides: There are over 200 constituents in Al-
oe vera, the single most important constituent
being the polysaccharides.
Biologically active chemical constituents of Al-
oe vera leaves
The gel contains 98.5 % water having pH of
4.5 and also contains many polysaccharides
such as Glucomannan, Acemannan etc., in ac-
tive 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 antivi-
ral 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 en-
zymatic 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 stabil-
ity than gel, which is left in the leaf. This means
that shipping of leaves, even at refrigerated
temperatures, will result in loss of biological
http://www.openaccessscience.com
ijmap@openaccessscience.com

Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants
activity. The overall timing of TTS production
phases is extremely critical. The processing
must be completed within 36 hours of harvest-
ing 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 ac-
tivity, 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 re-
duced activity levels. The best method of pas-
teurization is HTST (high temperature short
time), which exposes the gel to elevated temper-
atures for periods of one to three minutes. Once
heated, the gel is flashing cooled to 5 0C or be-
low.
C. Concentration
The gels obtained using the pasteurization
and flash-cooling methods can be concentrated
under vacuum without the loss of biological ac-
tivity. The concentration operation must be con-
ducted under 125 mm mercury vacuum at tem-
peratures 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 activi-
ty. 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
494
Aloe vera: a review
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 cru-
cial 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 alte-
red as may be the case with spray drying.
Freeze drying of the Aloe vera fillets were at
low temperature under vacuum found the max-
imum value of rehydration ratio and water hold-
ing 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 con-
stant 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 of-
ten involves some type of processing, like heat-
ing, dehydration and grinding (Chang et al.,
2006). Unfortunately, because of improper pro-
cessing 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 con-
tains dirt and other impurities. The yellow fluid
secretion from the harvested leaves should be
completely removed from the leaf for its pro-
http://www.openaccessscience.com
ijmap@openaccessscience.com

Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants
cessing and purity of products. The leaves were
thoroughly washed with fresh water with me-
chanical washer. In the Aloe vera processing
industry, leaves are initially washed in a steriliz-
ing solution, a 200 ppm solution of sodium hy-
pochlorite (Waller et al., 2004). If leaves are
extremely muddy when delivered to the gel fac-
tory 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 dry-
ing, yielded highest crude gel recovery and less-
er residual time without aloin contain as com-
pared to the fresh leaves el. They have also re-
vealed that the matured leaves lead more crude
gel recovery as compared to immature leaves.
The immature leaves take more time in pro-
cessing 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 taper-
ing point (50 100 mm) of the leaf top, and the
short, sharp spines located along the leaf mar-
gins are removed by a sharp knife. The muci-
Chandegara and Varshney
495
Aloe vera: a review
lage layer below the green rind avoiding the
vascular bundles and the top rind is also re-
moved with the help of knife. The bottom rind
is similarly removed.
The hand - filleting method of processing
Aloe leaves was developed to avoid contaminat-
ing 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 mu-
cilage 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 collect-
ed. The next step in gel processing is the remov-
al of cellular material from the gel. The gel fil-
lets 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 cellu-
lar material. The liquid gel is obtained, only af-
ter 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
http://www.openaccessscience.com
ijmap@openaccessscience.com

Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants
the gel are removed. In the A. vera industry,
0.05 % w/v charcoal is added to 2000 L gel, ap-
proximately gel takes one hour to pass through
Celite Filteraide for filteration.
Whole leaf processing
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 re-
moved, while maximizing the desired constitu-
ents. This process, performed properly, can pro-
duce a constituent-rich juice (generally contain-
ing 3 times or more constituents than hand fil-
leted 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 meth-
ods (Table 1).
In the method of whole leaf processing, the
whole leaf is coarsely chopped and the rind par-
ticles are removed by passing through filters of
various porosities. The anthraquinone are re-
moved 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 pre- 0.45 0.65 1.30 3.50
servatives or additives)
Polysaccharides 0.12 0.16
Source: http://www.wholeleaf.com
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
496
Aloe vera: a review
pair of rollers with variable apertures are ar-
ranged 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.
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 (Anon-
ymous, 2008b). Similar machine developed hav-
ing two stainless steel roller rotated with chain
and sprocket (Anonymous, 2008c).
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 ex-
tracted and over crushing of the leaves can be
avoided(Anonymous, 2008d) .
An apparatus for extraction of uncontami-
nated Aloe vera gel from the leaves of Aloe vera
plants had developed in which the harvested
leaves of the Aloe vera plants are placed be-
tween 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 ex-
trudes 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 ena-
ble separation of the gel. The leaves are re-
moved from the gel collection area before it
mixes with the flowing aloin to avoid contami-
nation (Tumlinson, 1985).
Aloe vera leaf splitter
Aloe vera leaf splitter is very advance meth-
od of peeling in which, leafs are spitted by me-
chanical machines that simulates hand filleting
operation.
http://www.openaccessscience.com
ijmap@openaccessscience.com

Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants
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 de-
veloped 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 ex-
tracting gel from Aloe vera leaves without con-
taminating 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 ad-
vanced from one end of the conveyor to the oth-
er end. The first and second cutting stations are
spaced along the conveyor assembly. They re-
move the opposite ends of an Aloe vera leaf and
also trim the serrated edges of the leaf. In addi-
tion to this, the third and fourth stations are dis-
posed along the conveyor assembly between the
second station and the discharge end of the con-
veyor assembly and the third station includes
Chandegara and Varshney
497
Aloe vera: a review
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 pan-
el 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 transmis-
sion 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 peel-
ing 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 meth-
od 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 pH Aloin, Per cent, Per cent,
Preparation (ppm) H20 Total Solids
Hand- filleting 4.27 6 99.25 0.48
Roller 4.30 32 99.61 0.39
Leaf Splitter 4.24 18 99.61 0.42
Whole Leaf 4.09 1 98.62 1.38
Source : http://wholeleaf.com
Commercial production
Total process of Aloe vera
http://www.openaccessscience.com
ijmap@openaccessscience.com

Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants
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 con-
siderably higher concentrations of total solids,
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
498
Aloe vera: a review
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.
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 produc-
http://www.openaccessscience.com
ijmap@openaccessscience.com

Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants
tion room is having stainless steel conveyor sys-
tem 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 al-
cohol precipitation. In this process, 20 gallons
of Aloe gel are pumped into 100 gallon tanks,
and then ethanol (80 gallons) is added to the Al-
oe gel and stirred for 20-30 minutes. The alco-
hol-Aloe gel mixture is then left for condition-
ing for four hours. The clear supernatant that
forms is decanted or siphoned off without dis-
turbing 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 vigor-
ously in a blender to make it uniform. This solu-
tion was strained through a muslin cloth and fil-
tered. 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 chlo-
ric 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.
Hot extracted gel (HEG)
Material left after passing the blended solu-
tion through muslin cloth, was repeatedly treat-
ed with hot water until the complete extractions
of gel was affected. The crude gel (HEG) was
prepared as described as above.
Chandegara and Varshney
499
Aloe vera: a review
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 fi-
bers. 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 gal-
lon tanks. Ethanol (80 gallons) is added to the
aloe gel and stirred for 20-30 minutes. The al-
cohol-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 solu-
tion 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 al-
cohol 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 cen-
trifugation applied is shown in Figure 2.
Purification of Aloe vera gel
The next step in gel processing is the re-
moval of cellular material from the gel. Gel fil-
lets 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, on-
ly the liquid gel remains. The gel in this crude
http://www.openaccessscience.com
ijmap@openaccessscience.com

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
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
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.
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.
http://www.openaccessscience.com
ijmap@openaccessscience.com

Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants
Table 3: Fractionation of Aloe vera Gel Extrac-
tion 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 re-
covery)
Chemical composition of Aloe vera gel
501
Aloe vera: a review
Aloe vera gel has a biologically active poly-
saccharide known as acetylated mannose, or
acemannan. Acemannan is one of many saccha-
rides 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 ma-
jor role in wound healing. Aloe vera also con-
tains fatty acids, enzymes, amino acids, vita-
mins, minerals, and other substances.

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

Test AloeCORP M/s Delta International
http://www. aloecorp.com http://www.garudaint.com
Appearance Clear Yellow / Green Liquid
*Absorbance @ 400nm NMT 0.500
Refractive Index 1.3340-1.3355 1.33789 - 1.34390
Specific Gravity 1.0030-1.0070 1.0221 - 1.0339
pH Value 3.5-4.7 3.5 - 4.7
Total Solids NLT 0.46% by weight

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
Protein 0.11g / 100 gr Fat 0.09g / 100 gr
Ash 0.25% Crude fiber 0.10%
Calories 3.3/100 gr
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.
Chandegara and Varshney
The fiber content is directly related to the
purity of gel and become the criteria of efficien-
cy of gel filtration unit. More fiber content, sug-
gests poor filtration operation. The difference
between crude gel recovery and pure gel recov-
http://www.openaccessscience.com
ijmap@openaccessscience.com

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 biolog-
ical 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 refrac-
tive 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 pro-
cess. More optical density indicates the impuri-
ties 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 sub-
ject to discoloration and spoilage from contami-
nation by microorganisms. Stabilization of Aloe
vera gel with Sulphated polysaccharides of the
red microalga Porphyridium aerugineum is car-
Chandegara and Varshney
502
Aloe vera: a review
ried out. The solution was then stored at room
temperature for 6 months for observations of the
structure and homogeneity of the polysaccha-
rides. Addition of the algal sulphated polysac-
charide resulted in a homogeneous stable prod-
uct: the algal polysaccharide may inhibit degra-
dation and also browning of the aloe polysac-
charide (Yaron, 1992).
Product preparations from Aloe vera
Aloe vera is an industrial crop and in the
food industry it has been utilized for the prepa-
ration 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 prepara-
tion 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. Commer-
cial, 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 pro-
cess 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 mar-
ketability. 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).
http://www.openaccessscience.com
ijmap@openaccessscience.com

Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants
Dried Juice: Aloe vera juice containing the
equivalent of 360 - 900 mg of dried sap is rec-
ommended by most herbalists per day (Herlina,
2001).
Aloe tea and fibre tablets: Dry aloe leaves are
harvested and crushed to form tea leaves. A de-
licious herbal tea can be brewed. Tea leaves are
pressed to form fibre tablets (Herlina, 2001).
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. Tem-
perature is the main factor for processing of Al-
oe vera and particularly gel extraction process.
Chandegara and Varshney
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 in-
gredients. 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 fil-
leting methods. Aloe vera gel should be freeze
dried to maintain biological properties as it con-
tains active compounds. After extracting the gel,
the stabilization of gel is inevitable for its long
duration storage and product formulations. Pre-
sent processing techniques aims at producing
best quality aloe products but end aloe products
contain very little or virtually no active ingredi-
ents. Hence, appropriate processing techniques
should be employed during processing in order
to extend the use of Aloe vera gel.
Figure 4: Flow chart with mass balance for
preparation of jelly from Aloe vera gel (Anon-
ymous, 2008a).
http://www.openaccessscience.com
ijmap@openaccessscience.com

Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants
Figure 5: Flow chart with mass balance for preparation of Aloe vera gel blended RTS Beverage
(Annonymous, 2008a).
References
Anonymous, 2008a. Post harvest processing of
aloe-vera leaves a medicinal plant, All
India Coordinated Research Project on
Post harvest Technology (Indian Council of
Agricultural Research), Annual Report,
Bhubaneswar
Chandegara and Varshney
504
Aloe vera: a review
Anonymous, 2008b. Post harvest management
of Aloe vera and aonla medicinal plants. All
India Coordinated Research Project on
Post harvest Technology (Indian Council of
Agricultural Research), Annual Report,
Jaipur
http://www.openaccessscience.com
ijmap@openaccessscience.com

Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants
Anonymous, 2008c. Post harvest technology for
aloe-vera (Aloe barbadensis miller), All In-
dia Coordinated Research Project on Post
harvest Technology (Indian Council of Ag-
ricultural Research), Annual Report, Udai-
pur
Anonymous, 2008d. Post-harvest Management
and Value-addition Department of Agricul-
tural Research and Education(Indian
Council of Agricultural Research), Annual
Report, New Delhi, pp: 80
Ashleye, F. L. 1983.Applying heat during pro-
cessing the commercial Aloe vera gel. Erde
International 1: 40-44
Andani, S. V. 2010.Studies on high vacuum
freeze drying of Aloe vera filets and its
storage, An unpublished M. Tech Thesis.
College of Agricultural Engineering and
Technology, JAU, Junagadh.
Chandegara, V. K. 2005. Development of gel
extraction process for Aloe vera leaves,
An unpublished M. Tech Thesis. College of
Agricultural Engineering and Technology,
JAU Junagadh.
Chang, L. X., Wang, C,, Feng, Y., Liu, Z. 2006.
Effects of heat treatments on the stabilities
of polysaccharides substances and
barbaloin in gel juice from Aloe vera Mil-
ler. J Food Eng 75:245251.
Femenia, A., Garcia P., Simal, S.,Rossello C.
2003. Effect of Heat treatment and dehy-
dration on bioactive polysaccharide
acemannan and cell wall polymers from
Aloe barbadensis Miller. Carbohydrate
Polymers. 51(4): 397 405.
Gowda, D. C., Neelisiddaiah, B., Anjaneyalu,
Y. V. 1979. Structural Studies of polysac-
charides from Aloe vera. Carbohydrates
Res. 72: 201-205
Grindlay,D., Reynolds T. 1986. The Aloe vera
phenomenon: a review of the properties and
modern uses of the leaf parenchyma gel.
Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 16:117
151.
He, Q., Changhong, L., Kojo, Tian Z. 2004.
Quality and safety assurance in the pro-
Chandegara and Varshney
505
Aloe vera: a review
cessing of Aloe vera gel juice. Food Con-
trol 16: 95-104 (2004).
Henry. R. 1979. An updated review of Aloe
vera. Cosmetics and toiletries ; 94:42-50.
Herlina, L. 2001. Incorporating private - public
relationship into food technology develop-
ment: creating added value to Aloe vera
product SEAG Symposium, 27.-31.8.2001,
Los Banos, Philippines.
Joshi, S. P. 1998. Chemical constituents and bi-
ological activity of Aloe barbadensis: a re-
view. Jr. of Medicinal and Aromatic Plant
Sciences 20:768-773
Miranda, M., Maureira, H., Rodriguez, K.,
Vega- Galvez, A. 2009. Influence of tem-
perature on the drying kinetics, physico-
chemical properties and antioxidant capaci-
ty of Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis Miller)
gel. J. Food Eng. 91(2):297 304
Obrien, Chantal, 2005. Physical And Chemical
Characteristics Of Aloe Gels. An un-
published M. Sc. Thesis University Of Jo-
hannesburg .
Pisalkar. P. S., Jain, N.K., Jain, S.K. 2011.
Osmo-air drying of Aloe vera gel cubes. J
Food Sci Technol (MarApr 2011)
48(2):183189.
Ramachandra, C.T.m Rao P.S. 2008. Processing
of Aloe vera Leaf Gel: A Review. Ameri-
can Journal of Agricultural and Biological
Sciences 3 (2): 502-510.
Ramachandra C.T., Rao P.S. 2009. Processing
of Aloe vera leaf gel: a focus on the present
and innovative process technologies. In:
Proc Int Conf Innovations in food and bio-
process technologies, AIT Pathumthami,
Thailand, 1214 Dec, p 358377 (2006).
Reynolds, T., Dweck, A.C. 1999. Aloe vera leaf
gel: a review update. Journal of
Ethnopharmacology, 68: 3-37.
Segovia, P.G., Mognetti C., Bello, A. A.,
Monzo, J. M. 2009. Osmotic dehydration of
Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis Miller). J
Food Eng 97:154160.
Seoshin, Y., Lee, K. S., Lee, J. S., Lee, C.H.
1995. Preparation of ghurt added with Aloe
http://www.openaccessscience.com
ijmap@openaccessscience.com

Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants
vera and its quality characteristics. J Kore-
an Soc Food Nutr 24:254260.
Shafi, N., Khan, L., Khan, G.A. 2000. Com-
mercial extraction of gel from Aloe vera
(L) leaves. J. Chem. Soc. 22(1): 47-49
Simal, S., Femenia, A., Llull, P., Rossello, C.
2000. Dehydration of Aloe vera: simulation
of drying curves and evaluation of func-
tional properties. Journal of food engineer-
ing. 43(2): 109-114.
Vega, A., Uribe, E., Lemus, R., Miranda, M.
2007. Hot air drying characteristics of Aloe
vera (Aloe barbadensis Miller) and influ-
ence of temperature on kinetic parameters.
Food Science and Technology. 40(10):
1698 1707.
Waller, T.A., Pelley, R.P., Strickland, F.M.
2004. Industrial processing and quality con-
trol of Aloe barbadensis (Aloe vera) gel. In:
Reynolds (ed.) Aloes: The genus Aloe.
CRC Press, London. pp. 139-205.
Wang, Y.T., Strong, K. J. 1993. Monitoring
physical and chemical properties of freshly
harvested field-grown Aloe vera leaves. A
preliminary report. Phytotherapy Research
7: S1-S4
Yaron A, Cohen E, Arad (Malis), S. 1992. Sta-
bilization of Aloe vera gel by interaction
with sulfated polysaccharides from red mi-
croalgae with xanthan gum. J. Agrc. Food
Chem. 40: 1316-1320 (1992).
Botha MC, 1994. Process for extracting poly-
saccharides from plant material. S
Afr.Patent ZA 941581.
Cottrell TA, 1984.Method and apparatus for ex-
tracting Aloe vera gel, United States Patent
4488482.
(http://www.freepatentsonline.com/448848
2.html)
Danhof, IE, 2000. Aloe vera, The Whole Leaf
Advantage Excerpts
Chandegara and Varshney
506
Aloe vera: a review
http://www.wholeleaf.com Accessed Janu-
ary, 2000
De Gray, W. G. (1986). Aloe vera leaf proces-
sor. United States Patent 4591387
(http://www.freepatentsonline.com/459138
7.html) Accessed July, 2007
Gilman, EF. 1999. Aloe barbadensis.
http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/shrubs/ALOBARA.P
DF. Accessed 30 March 2003.McAnalley
BH, 1990. Process for preparation of aloe
products. U.S. Patent 4 966 892.
(http://www.freepatentsonline.com/496689
2.html)
Moore, T. 2001. Aloe barbadensis.
(http://ag.arizona.edu/pima/gardening/aridp
lants/Aloe_barbadensis.html) Accessed 30
March 2003.
Thompson Donnie, 1983. Aloe vera plant gel
separator. United States Patent 4395942.
(http://www.freepatentsonline.com/439594
2.html ).
Tumlinson Larry N, 1985. Method and appa-
ratus for extraction of Aloe vera gel, United
States Patent
45559,(http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4
555987.html ).
Xiaozhou Huang, 2000. Aloe vera gel extracting
apparatus, United States Patent 6117247.
(http://www.freepatentsonline.com/611724
7.html)
Typical composition of Aloe vera gel, Garuda
International, Inc. 1998.
http://www.garudaint.com (Accessed n
June 2004)
The Total Process Aloe vera Story. http://www.
bonasana.com, (Accessed December, 2001)
Aloe vera Company, UK. Properties of Aloe
vera constituents.
http://www.aloevera.co.uk/ (Accessed
April, 2003)
http://www.openaccessscience.com
ijmap@openaccessscience.com