Aloe dhufarensis Lavranos

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Dhofari Aloe

In Omani studies: Miller & Morris (1988) wrote that: "This plant is one of the small group of the most important (and versatile) medicinal plants in Dhofar. The part that was used medicinally was the juice, which was collected ([J: ebjes], from the same root as J: josot, juice, latex or sap) by snapping off the fleshy leaves [J: siz 'ot, ser 'ot: ser', DA: sula] at the base and arranging them in a circle around a container or hollow scraped out of the earth, and leaving them to drain while other plants were dealt with in the same way. The juice was then collected with a scoop or piece of bark and left to dry. The most common container used to store the juice was a little leather pouch [J: kerkut] into which successive layers of the juice were poured, each layer being allowed to evaporate and dry out ... before another was added. (This leather container filled with dried aloe-juice currently sells for about five riyals in the markets of Dhofar). The juice was used fresh or dried, the dried being considered more potent. However, the two were often interchangeable, fresh juice being replaced by dried material pounded and dissolved in water. Aloes-juice was considered to be at its most potent medicinally when collected in the three months following the monsoon [J: serb], and the aloes-juice of the drier areas was considered to be more powerful than that of the wetter areas (indeed aloes juice from these drier areas was often bartered for the seeds of Psoralea corylifolia [J: mahleb shari]) which grew only in the monsoon zone. The fresh juice was used to treat a variety of conditions. For instance, it was smeared onto the forehead to relive a bad headache or to treat a stuffy headcold. It was used as an embrocation to rub into sore, strained or aching limbs and joints. It was mixed with hot water and sometimes powdered indigo [J: nuz] and painted on skin rashes and eruptions, such as those of measles, German measles and chickenpox. It was painted around eyes which were infected and swollen or itchy and weeping. It was poured over a wound that has become infected (after preliminary cleaning with salt and water), the wound then being lightly bandaged to protect it from flies and dirt. It was drunk for cases of severe constipation which has not responded to less drastic remedies: this treatmen always produced some sort of respone, either vomiting - it is exceptionally bitter - or opening of the bowels. Nosebleeds were treated by rubbing fresh juice in and around the nose then inserting little plugs of cotton soaked in the juice, the patient lying on his back with chin in the air until the bleeding has stopped. A persistent and painful, unproductive cough was treated by painting the chest with the juice, sometimes with added salt and powdered turmeric (Curcuma longa, J, DA: kerkem, herd) - this dried to form a firm coating rather like sticking plaster and provided symptomatic relief. The coating stucks fast and could only be removed witj oil or some other grease. The fresh juice was applied to burns to soothe the pain and prevent infection. The juice was also used cosmetically to dye the face, neck, bosom, arms and legs an orangey-yellow colour, which as well as being seen as beautiful in itself, was also considered to protect the wearer against cold and disease. Drops of the juice were put right into the eye when it was painful, damaged or inflamed (which was not the case with the majority of medications for treating the eye, which were nearly always applied around the eye but rarely actually into it). It was sniffed up the nose to relieve symptoms of allergy and hay fever. Someone who was very thirsty would take a leaf and split open the hard outer casing and squeeze out some juice from the fleshy pulp inside and drink it while placing the rest of the pulp on the stomach to assuage his thirst. Someone who has suffered a stroke and was consequently facially altered in a marked manner, or who as a result of illness was facially disfigured in some way, would paint the effected part with repeated layers of the fresh juice. Poor sight was treated with a mixture of fresh aloes-juice, water and salt painted around the eye repeatedly in an attempt to make the sight sharper - a remedy particularly used by the elderly as their sight deteriorated with age. The swellings of mumps were painted with the juice mixed with ground 'mahlab' seeds (Psoralea corylifolia). Eyes in which an infection has reached such an advanced stage that pus exuded were treated with xutūt (the seeds of a species of Ferula) bought in the market, pulverized, mixed with the juice of the aloe then painted around the eye, a small pad of cloth soaked with the same mixture being given to the patient to sniff, until the condition has improved. The powdered dry material was used especially as a vermifuge, taken on an empty stomach first thing in the morning, swallowed in a single gulp or mixed with a more palatable food. The dried material was also preferred for treating a painful and infected purulent ear, the ground powder being mixed with a little water to make a paste which was then painted all around the ear, while hot cloths soaked in the paste were applied to the ear at regular intervals to soothe the pain and draw the pus. For pain in the abdomen, a little of the powdered material was taken, and for cases of generalized oedema or dropsy, and also as a remedy for urine retention, a little of the powder with added turmeric and salt was taken daily with butter until the condition improved. The powdered dried material with powdered indigo was used to anoint a newborn baby. The parturient mother too was anointed with J: mirr (myrrh), J: kerkem (turmeric) and J: nuź (powdered indigo), while her forehead was bound round with a twisted length of material or rope and her forehead anointed with powdered aloes-juice". (Ref. Plants of Dhofar). In addition, Pickering & Patzelt (2008) mentioned that: "Considered to be one of the most important medicinal plants in Dhofar, perticularly the dried juice". (Ref. Field Guide to the Wild Plants of Oman; 2008). Further, Richardson & Dorr (2003) stated that: "Efforts to identify new sources of a suitable red pigment have led to the use of powdered aniline or coal-tar dyes, imported from India, which are mixed with milk and a small amount of sabr - the dried plant juice of the indigenous Aloe dhufarensis - to create a bright cherry -red colour. A very dark, glossy green, which can appear black to the casual observer, is produced by mixing a crystalline green dye with water and dried sabr. Dhofari women employ indigo as a tattooing agent and as a cosmetic, mixing a small amount of the powdered dyestuff with the juice of aloe (sabr) and rubbing it into the skin so that the complexion takes on a faint, ethereal blue hue". (Ref. The Craft Heritage of Oman). Furthermore, Ghazanfar (2018) wrote that: "The sap of this species is used for medicinal purposes". (Ref. Flora of Oman; vol.4).

Ghazanfar, S. (2018). Flora of the Sultanate of Oman, vol.4: Hydrocharitaceae – Orchidaceae. Meise, National Botanic Garden of Belgium (Scripta Botanica Begica, Vol. 56). ISBN 9789492663153 ISSN 0779-2387. https://en.wikipedia.org Miller, A., Morris, M. (1988). Plants of Dhofar, the Southern Region of Oman: Traditional, Economic, and Medicinal Uses. Published by Office of the Adviser for Conservation of the Environment, Diwan of Royal Court, Sultanate of Oman; ISBN 10: 0715708082 ISSN 13: 9780715708088. Pickering, H. Patzelt, A. (2008). Field Guide to the Wild Plants of Oman. Kew publishing, Royal Botanic Garden, Kew. ISBN 9781842461778. Patzelt, A. (2015). Oman Plant Red Data Book. Published by Diwan of Royal Court, Sultanate of Oman. Oman Botanic Garden Publication No. 1. ISBN 978-99969-50-10-0. Richardson, N. Dorr, M. (2003). The Craft Heritage of Oman; vol. 2. Published by Motivate publishing. ISBN 1-86063-1584. POWO (2023). "Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published ... on the Internet; http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org