Aloe vera

A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial assessed topical 0.5% hydrophilic aloe vera cream applied 3 times daily for 5 consecutive days per week (maximum 4 weeks active treatment) compared with placebo cream in 60 patients with mild to moderate chronic plaque-type psoriasis. Patients were followed-up for 12 months. The treatment was well tolerated by all the patients, with no adverse drug-related symptoms. By the end of the study, the Aloe vera extract cream had cured 25/30 patients (83.3%) compared to the placebo cure rate of 2/30 (6.6%). The rate of clearing of the psoriatic plaques was also significantly better with aloe vera (82.8%) than with placebo (7.7%) (2).