Health Concerns: Individuals dealing with digestive conditions and irritable bowel must keep away from aloe-vera juice for the reason that stimulant laxatives in it may enhance the harshness of the medical conditions. Carrying a child: Ingesting aloe-vera juice in pregnancy or while breastfeeding is greatly restrained due to the irritant and also purgative characteristics. Natural Aloe-vera ought to be minimal throughout lactation given that the existence of anthraquinones inside breast milk could lead to diarrhoea. In expectant mothers aloevera juice might cause vaginal contractions and also end in loss of the baby. Slows down Injury Recovery: Natural Aloe Vera juice or external natural aloe-vera lotions are certainly not a good idea if there are serious injuries and burns as they are able cause a postponement in injury restoration. You must remember the fact that the majority of the aloevera juice complications are caused by an overdose or incorrect use. If you suffer from any of those adverse reactions then avoid using aloe-vera straight away and request healthcare support as early as you can. Additionally in case you're on any medications, then look for the physician's tips before using natural aloe-vera juice. We expect you understand now that having aloe-vera juice far too much can have certain negative effects, so be cautious. Here is a link that might be useful: TheVitaminMag.com

The first is Aloe vera v. chinensis. (blooms orange) The 2nd (although that looks like more spots than usual) which is much larger, thicker leaves & yellow blooms, is Aloe vera/barbadensis. I believe it has been reclassified with the latter name, but most people are still calling it by the former (vera), so one or the other is listed as a synonym. See link below for a pic of an Aloe vera/barbadensis ~Rosemarie, who hangs out on the C&S forum, but pops over here on occasion =) Here is a link that might be useful:

So the yellow, stinky stuff is called aloe latex and if you are going to consume aloe for the health benefits you want to first drain the aloe latex. The smell is normal (kind of a horrible body oder sort of smell). The latex is a powerful laxative and can really irritate your intestines. Unless you are very constipated than you want to get rid of it before eating it. I start by washing the aloe after cutting it. Cut off the ends and top of the aloe branch. Let it first sit at a 45 degree angel for 30-45 minutes. Then let it soak it soak in some water for another 20-45 minutes. This will help extract the aloe latex and leave the aloe gel. There are plenty of YouTube videos that show how to filet an aloe branch to get the gel out. But that stinky yellow substance you're smelling is natural (and naturally smells bad), nothing wrong with your aloe at all!

There are three "major" medicinal Aloes: Aloe arborescens (seriously people, if you live in SoCal, use this!), Aloe saporina, and Aloe vera. These are the standard, "put it on what hurts" Aloes, good for burns, scrapes, and other topical ailments. There are many other species used for other reasons (purgatives and laxatives are common!). In reality, most stuff sold at supermarkets is just the inner gel of the leaf with some other stuff mixed in. The thing is, most of the "medicinal" compounds are in the yellowish sap than runs more in the skin of the Aloe than in the middle, clear gel. If you've ever used real leaves instead of a supermarket bottle, you'd have found that it is much more effective, but leaves a yellowish, sticky residue that would be too uncivilized for something sold in the beauty department. So would A. maculata work? Probably, since the inner leaf gel is mostly just water in all species, and the supermarket bottles are mostly just water too. Then again, it is possible that it has some sort of compound in it that might actually irritate your skin. Depending on how much of a gambler you are (and how much extra A. maculata you have laying around) it may be worth a shot. Then again, I'm not even remotely a doctor, so maybe I'm not the best person to be listening to!