202 
Commercial  Aloes. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1903. 
HISTORY. 
The  history  of  the  early  use  of  aloes  is  decidedly  meagre. 
According  to  the  editors  of  the  Pharmacographia,2  the  earliest 
reliable  references  to  this  drug  are  to  be  found  in  The  Natural  His- 
tory of  Pliny,  and  in  the  Materia  Medica  of  Dioscorides.  There 
can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  aloes  had  been  in  use  for  a  very  long 
time  before  the  days  of  either  Pliny  or  Dioscorides. 
This  opinion  would  appear  to  be  corroborated  by  Dragendorff,3 
who  states  that  aloes  is  included  among  the  drugs  mentioned  in  the 
papyrus  discovered  by  Ebers  in  Egypt. 
The  plant  was  cultivated  and  the  drug  produced  in  southern 
Europe,  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  at  an  early  date. 
Treumann,4  in  his  monograph  on  aloes,  mentions  a  number  of  refer- 
ences that  would  appear  to  bear  out  this  statement,  and  also  indicate 
that  as  late  as  the  sixteenth  century  a  very  good  quality  of  aloes 
was  being  produced,  at  least  in  Spain. 
The  aloes  mentioned  in  the  Bible  is  of  entirely  different  origin, 
and  was  used  for  a  different  purpose.  In  the  East  this  ahaloth,  or 
aloe  wood,  is  used  even  at  the  present  time  as  an  ingredient  in  the 
sweet-smelling  incense  used  in  connection  with  religious  cele- 
brations.4 
The  more  interesting  portion  of  the  history  of  aloes  is  that  con- 
nected with  the  development  of  the  various  trade  varieties  of  the 
drug. 
This  more  recent  history  is  given  in  considerable  detail  in  the 
Pharmacographia,2  Fluckiger's  Pharmacognosies  Pereira's  Materia 
Medica,6  and  also  in  an  interesting  article  by  Prof.  J.  Uri  Lloyd, 
published  in  the  Western  Druggist} 
We  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  to  some  of  these  authorities  again 
later,  when  we  come  to  consider  aloes  under  the  different  trade 
names. 
It  may  be  interesting  here  to  review  these  different  trade  names 
as  they  appear  in  works  of  reference  at  different  periods  during  the 
nineteenth  century. 
The  American  Dispensatory,8  at  the  beginning  of  last  century, 
gives  a  description  of  four  available  varieties  of  aloes.    These  were : 
"  (i)  Cape  Aloes. — Cheap;  imported  into  England  in  large  quan- 
tities, chiefly  for  use  of  porter-brewers. 
"  (2)  Socotrine  Aloes. — From  the  Island  of  Socotra,  usually  wrapt 
in  skins. 
