Herbal Aloe vera and Irritable bowel syndrome

Aloe Vera is species of succulent plant in the genus Aloe, belonging to the Family Xanthorrhoeaceae, native to Sudan. It has become very popular for commercial cultivation due to its health benefits. Aloe vera has been used in herbal medicine in treating many kinds of disease, including wound, burn healing, minor skin infections, sebaceous cysts, diabetes, and elevated of cholesterol, etc. It is also one of many popular herb studied in scientific ways with some conflicted results.
Irritable bowel syndrome is defined as a condition, if a patient is diagnosed with abdominal pain or discomfort, bloating, and alteration of bowel habits at least three times a month for the last 3 months without preexistence of other disease.

The Ingredients 
The ten main areas of chemical constituents of Aloe vera include: amino acids, anthraquinones, enzymes, minerals, vitamins, lignins, monosaccharide, polysaccharides, salicylic acid, saponins, and sterols. 

The benefits
Aloe vera (AV) has long been suggested by herbal medicine in treating irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms. In the comparison of the effectiveness of a mixture of Aloe vera (AV) and Matricaria recutita (German chamomile, GC) in treating Irritable bowel syndrome, GC inhibited only small bowel transit while the AV/GC mixture delayed gastric emptying at the doses of 150 and 300 mg/kg. The AV/GC mixture also reduced colonic transit and small bowel transit at the dose of 150 mg/kg. In other randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial of to test the effects of aloe vera for irritable bowel syndrome, there was no evidence that AV benefits patients with IBS and superior to placebo in improving quality of life proven Irritable Bowel Syndrome patients, but in 49 completed the protocol to 1 month and 41 to 3 months. Eleven of thirty-one (35%) AV patients, and 6 of 27 (22%) placebo patients responded at 1 month (p = 0.763). Diarrhoea predominant patients showed a trend towards a response to treatment at 1 month (10/23 V 2/14, p = 0.07).

The Side effects
1. Hepatitis
Some researchers concerned that the over use of oral aloe vera may contribute to acute hepatitis, according to the study of "Oral aloe vera-induced hepatitis" by Bottenberg MM, Wall GC, Harvey RL, Habib S.
2. Diarrhea, caused by the laxative effect of oral use of Aloe Vera
3. oral use of Aloe Vera may cause abdominal cramps and pain
4. It may cause of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms as a result of collagen in the plant
5. Etc.

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References
(1) Aloe barbadensis Mill. formulation restores lipid profile to normal in a letrozole-induced polycystic ovarian syndrome rat Model (PubMed)
(2)   ALOE VERA by Gertrude Baldwin, http://www.herballegacy.com/Baldwin_Chemical.html
(3) Benefit of Aloe vera and Matricaria recutita mixture in rat irritable bowel syndrome: Combination of antioxidant and spasmolytic effects by Asadi-Shahmirzadi A, Mozaffari S, Sanei Y, Baeeri M, Hajiaghaee R, Monsef-Esfahani HR, Abdollahi M.(PubMed)
(4) Randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial of aloe vera for irritable bowel syndrome.

Davis K, Philpott S, Kumar D, Mendall M.(PubMed)

(5) A Randomised, Cross-Over, Placebo-Controlled Study of Aloe vera in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Effects on Patient Quality of Life by Hutchings HA, Wareham K, Baxter JN, Atherton P, Kingham JG, Duane P, Thomas L, Thomas M, Ch'ng CL, Williams JG.(PubMed)

(7) Oral aloe vera-induced hepatitis(PubMed)
(8) Oral type II collagen in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. A six-month double blind placebo-controlled study(PubMed)