How To Use Aloe Vera, The Miracle Plant

Aloe vera has a way of healing the skin beautifully. It treats everything from burns to pimples. Every hospital should have aloe vera plants in the burn ward. It is excellent for treating burns. Every kitchen should have that hardy plant. You don't need to live in a desert to grow that cactus. It thrives virtually anywhere, preferably in the sun.

Keep an aloe vera plant in the kitchen and a few more in the garden, if you have one. These love the sun. If you have a plant, let it grow until it is at least 3-5 years old so that the leaves will be large enough to contain sufficient pulp to use.

Here's how you can use the plant.

1. Slice a large, succulent leaf from the plant.
2. Slice the leaf in half length wise to expose the maximum amount of the transparent gel.
3. Scoop up the clear gel and put into a clean container.
4. Avoid the yellow liquid that oozes just below the rind. That stuff is very irritating. Wash it off from the gel you salvaged.

You can use that gel directly on a burn to soothe it.
Or you could use it as a beauty treat.
Deactivate the aloin (yellow or brown liquid from the rind, that will irritate the skin) by boiling it in water for 5 minutes. Then you can use the gel as a skincare treat or a hair gel.

You can use aloe vera to soothe sunburns. Apply the gel liberally over burned skin.
For acne, mix the aloe vera pulp with kaolin and apply on face. Leave on until mask dries then wash it off.
You can use it for detox by making it into dessert. Slice the pulp into cubes. Boil in water with rock sugar to sweeten it. Eat or drink it as a dessert. (Be sure it is the real aloe vera plant. It would be safer to buy the leaf from the market or a grocery store if you are going to eat it.)

Alternatively, you could get aloe vera products off the shelf and use that on your skin or to detox your body.