Cape aloeの抗菌および抗真菌作用に関する研究

Abstract

Cape aloe is a dried product of juice of Aloe ferox Miller or of the cross-bred between Aloe ferox Miller and Aloe africana Miller, usually brownish black to dark brown in color. When it is heated to evaporize and crushed after cooling, it becomes to dark red to brownish yellow powder which is called Aloe powder in the Japanese Pharmacopoeia.On the other hand, Aloe juice producee by Mamiya Pharmaceutical Co. is an yellow liquid obtained from original plants by means of repeated freezing and thawing. When it is passed through Seitz filter and then freeze-dried, it becomes to fine yellowish powder which we call freeze-dried Aloe powcer.Cape aloe or Aloe powder has been used as a peptic or a laxative in medicine, and Aloe juice is now widely used as a medicine for gastro-intestinal disturbances or as an ointment for burns or frostbites in popular remedies.In an attempt to clarify the basic mechanism by which Aloe Juice exerts its beneficial effect on the skin lesions such as burns, frostbites and insectbites, its anti-bacterial and antifungal activity against representative 16 strains and its therapeutic effect on experimental trichophytiasis produced on the back skin of guinea pigs as well as on 12 human cases with trichophytiasis have been tested. Although the bactericidal and fungicidal activity of Aloe juice is not so noteworthy, it exerts a cidal action against a wide variety of bacteria and fungi, particularly against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus vulgaris.Aloe ointment containing 5% Aloe freeze-dried powder proved to be considerably effective in treatment of experimental or human trichophytiasis, when applied once a day for about 10 days. The test on therapeutic effect of Aloe juice on burns experimentally infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa is now in progress, which will be reported on in the near future.