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| digestive disorders, headaches, or muscle pains, your personal first aid kit can ease your distress quickly and effectively. |
| The fifty plants listed in this section are all suitable candidates for inclusion in the first aid kit. Some will be familiar as the popular herbs you can buy at the health food store or pharmacy, while others are more familiar as fruits or vegetables. Where accurate identification is important, detailed botanical descriptions are included for plants that may be gathered in the wild. |
| Unless quantities are specified, the standard proportions given in the next chapter should be used when making remedies. |
| Aloe (Aloe Vera) |
| Aloe is a tropical African plant that has been used medicinally since ancient times. In the West, the juice has traditionally been regarded as a soothing wound herb, but in Ayurvedic medicine it is treated as a restorative tonic. ''Aloe vera" is also the commercial name given to the mucilaginous gel from one particular type of aloe, which has become extremely popular in recent years both as a tonic remedy and as an ingredient in skin creams and cosmetic lotions. |
| Description: A perennial plant growing in clumps and producing numerous suckers or off-shoots. Leaves are thick and spiky with white splashes, which appear red-tinged in young plants. Tubular flowers appear on long stems in summer. |
| Parts used: Leaves, sap. |
| Actions: Antifungal, anthelmintic, cholagogue, demulcent, purgative, styptic, sedative, tonic, wound healer. |
| Uses: As a bitter purgative, "bitter aloes" is widely included in over-the-counter remedies for constipation. Commercial aloe extracts are also sold as general tonics. For home first aid, use the gel (collected by opening a leaf and scraping out the sap), or the split fresh leaves applied directly, for scrapes, minor burns, eczema, |
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