Healing plant - aloe: how to prepare, use and store the juice of this flower at home?

Aloe is a medicinal plant that adorns the window sill of almost every housewife. Everyone knows about the benefits of aloe for the treatment of colds, moisturizing the skin, healing wounds and bruises.

However, not everyone knows how to squeeze and prepare juice from the leaves of this plant at home so that it retains a maximum of useful substances and trace elements. Today we will talk about this in our article.

Do all species of this flower have healing properties?

Botanists have about 500 varieties of this plant, but not all of them can be considered equally useful. In the wild, this shrub grows in desert areas, so a large amount of life-giving moisture and valuable active substances are stored in its leaves, which will help it survive during periods of long drought.

Aloe leaves themselves are covered with a thin dense film to reduce evaporation. In medicine and cosmetology, only 15 varieties of this shrub are used. The most valuable types:

• aloe present (faith);
• aloe tree;
• aloe is awesome;
• soapy.

Attention: Aloe vera and treelike are the most common varieties of this plant in the apartments of Russia. They do not require careful care, grow quickly and give a lot of succulent leaves.

How to choose a sheet to cut?

Not every tree and not every leaf has useful properties.. Plants ideally suited for the extraction of valuable nectar are 2 to 4 years old. Suitable leaves are lower, fleshy, reaching a length of at least 15 cm.

How to cut it right?

Simple rules for cutting a sheet:

1. 2 weeks before cutting, the plant must be stopped watering, so that the concentration of valuable components in the leaves increases;
2. 3 days before the proposed cut, place the shrub in a dark place;
3. leaves need to be cut with a sharp knife at the very base of the trunk;
4. raw materials for juice must be wrapped in dark dense paper or foil and kept in the refrigerator for at least 2 days, and preferably 2 weeks.

Not only the lower fleshy leaves are subject to cutting. Dry, damaged and dead leaves must be removed on time to maintain plant health.

How to squeeze out the liquid and prepare the product?

How to make aloe juice? To obtain an elixir from a perennial, you must complete this recipe:

1. finely seasoned raw materials in the refrigerator finely chopped with a knife or using a blender;
2. pour cold boiled water in a ratio of 1 part of aloe to 3 parts of water, mix thoroughly;
3. cover and put in a dark place for 2-3 hours;
4. squeeze the mass thoroughly through cheesecloth, pour the resulting product into a glass dish.

Such juice does not need to be diluted before use, it is completely ready for use. To prepare concentrated juice, you must skip the dilution step.

If you need to prepare a product for long-term storage, you need to mix pure freshly squeezed aloe juice with high-quality alcohol in a ratio of 4: 1 and let the mixture stand for 10 days. It is important to know that alcohol tincture of aloe juice can not be used in its pure form: before use, it is necessary to dilute the product with water in a ratio of 1: 3.

Juice from pre-aged in the cold leaves of aloe is called biostimulated.

How to apply?

What to do with juice? The main areas of application of juice:

• to moisturize the skin of the face and treat acne, the product is used as part of masks;
• buried in the nose and gargle with colds;
• make compresses for bruises, wounds, sore joints;
• taken orally to alkalize the body and improve immunity;
• rinse hair and make masks for their treatment and recovery;
• taken orally for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases.

You can read about what diseases aloe juice helps against here, but here we talked about how to use it as a top dressing for indoor flowers.

We recommend watching a video about the use of aloe juice for medicinal purposes:

Are useful properties lost during storage?

When stored in a warm room and when exposed to light, aloe juice loses nutrientsand it becomes unusable. The leaves, on the other hand, lose their healing properties a month after separating them from the plant.

How to store after cooking?

Fresh juice, concentrated or diluted, cannot be stored for long periods. You can store a healthy elixir for no more than 3 days in the refrigerator. Further, the use of juice will not bring any benefit, since all substances will be destroyed.

Juice prepared using a preservative (alcohol) can be stored both in the refrigerator and at room temperature for 2 years without losing valuable components. If the product has changed color, smell or texture, its further use is prohibited..

Tip: Leaves of a prickly plant are stored up to one month. It is recommended to prepare the juice regularly and in the amount needed for only 2-3 days. So you can have in your refrigerator a fresh remedy full of useful components.

Read more about how to save aloe juice at home, read here.

Conclusion

The bitter juice of the southern shrub has been famous for its benefits for many hundreds of years.. The article discusses in detail how to squeeze leaves at home to get juice from them. However, it must be understood that aloe juice is a very active substance with many contraindications. Before taking the product inside, you must consult your doctor to avoid possible side effects and enjoy only the benefits.

Watch the video: Aloe Vera Care Guide! . Garden Answer (May 2024).