# Aloe

**Aloe**

**Known today as.** Here the aloe of John 19:39, with which, mixed with myrrh, Nicodemus anointed Christ’s body; probably aloeswood (agarwood) rather than the aloe plant.

Kind: Sacramental

## What did Canale use it for?

Blessed with myrrh “by the most sacred Body of Christ” (Treatise Two).

## What does modern science say?

See [Agarwood](https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/agarwood).

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **agarospirol**: a sesquiterpene of the resinous wood
- **jinkoh-eremol**: 
- **2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone**: the chromones that give the scent

**Mechanism.** The “aloe” of Scripture and of Canale is the fragrant wood, not the purgative leaf-juice of the same name: its sesquiterpenes and chromones are the perfume, and the smoke is sedative in mice.

**Dose.** No toxicity recorded; the wood is burned, not swallowed.

**Standing.** A perfumery and incense material; the tree is protected under CITES Appendix II.

## What lore surrounds it?

Folkard keeps the biblical aloes, the fragrant wood, apart from the bitter drug: “All thy garments smell of Myrrh, and Aloes, and Cassia,” and the spice Nicodemus brought “to embalm the body of our Lord.” The heart of the wood, calambac, “is reckoned in the Indies more precious than gold itself.” He quotes Wood's Zoography on Egypt, where “whoever returns from a pilgrimage to Mecca hangs it over his street door as a proof of his having performed that holy journey,” and the belief “that this plant hinders evil spirits and apparitions from entering the house.” The Arabic Saber “signifies patience, and in Mecca at the end of most graves, facing the epitaph, is planted an Aloe.”

Grieve separates the two aloes: “The word Aloes, in Latin Lignum Aloes, is used in the Bible and in many ancient writings to designate a substance totally distinct from the modern Aloes, namely the resinous wood of Aquilaria agallocha,” long “valued for use as incense.” Of the living plant she records that “the Mussulman who has made a pilgrimage to the shrine of the Prophet is entitled to hang the Aloe over his doorway,” that “in Cairo, the Jews also adopt the practice,” and that near Mecca Burckhardt found at the end of every grave “a low shrubby species of Aloe whose Arabic name, saber, signifies patience,” its name referring “to the waiting-time between the burial and the resurrection morning.”

## What did the older authorities say?

**Pliny.** His aloe is the bitter plant, not the fragrant wood: it “bears a resemblance to the squill, except that it is larger,” with thicker leaves streaked obliquely, a tender stem red in the middle, and “a single root, which runs straight downwards, like a stake driven into the ground”; its smell is powerful and its taste bitter, the most esteemed comes from India, and the Asiatic kind is used only by laying the fresh leaves, glutinous “to a marvellous degree,” on wounds.

## Sources

- Pliny the Elder, *Natural History* 27.5, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library.
- Folkard, R. (1884). *Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics*, “Aloe.” Project Gutenberg #44638.
- Grieve, M. (1931). *A Modern Herbal*, “Aloes.” botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/a/aloes027.html
- Naef, R. (2011). “The volatile and semi-volatile constituents of agarwood.” *Flavour and Fragrance Journal* 26.
- Takemoto, H., et al. (2008). “Sedative effects of vapor inhalation of agarwood oil.” *Journal of Natural Medicines* 62.

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*Aloe.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/aloe

Historical description, not medical advice.