Antioxidant and Cytotoxicological Effects ofAloe veraFood Supplements

Abstract

Currently, food industries use supplements fromAloe veraas highly concentrated powders (starting products), which are added to the final product at a concentration of 1x, meaning 10 g/L for decolourized and spray-dried whole leaf powder (WLP) or 5 g/L for decolourized and spray-dried inner leaf powder (ILG) and also for nondecolourized and belt-dried inner leaf powder (ILF). Flavonoids, tannins, or saponins could not be detected for any starting product at this concentration and their total phenol concentration of 68–112 μM gallate-eq. was much lower than in fresh extract; however, their antioxidant capacity of 90–123 μM ascorbate-eq. for DPPH was similar to the fresh extract. Starting products, dissolved at 1x, had an aloin concentration of 0.04 to 0.07 ppm, a concentration much lower than the industry standard of 10 ppm for foodstuff. While decolourized starting products (i.e., treated with activated carbon) exhibited low cytotoxicity on HeLa cells (CC50= 15 g/L ILG or 50 g/L WLP), ILF at CC50= 1–5 g/L exhibited cytotoxic effects, that is, at concentrations even below the recommended for human consumption. Probable causes for the cytotoxicity of ILF are the exposure to high temperatures (70–85°C) combined with a high fibre content.

Proanthocyanidin Characterization, Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Activities of Three Plants Commonly Used in Traditional Medicine in Costa Rica: Petiveria alliaceae L., Phyllanthus niruri L. and Senna reticulata Willd.

“…Finally, the cytotoxicity results obtained for the P. niruri extract on AGS tumor gastric cell lines and SW620 tumor colon cell lines, are similar to those found in the literature for methanolic and aqueous extracts on PC-3 prostate cancer cell lines (IC 50 values of 117.7 and 155.0 µg/mL respectively), MeWo skin cancer cell lines (IC 50 values of 153.3 and 193.3 µg/mL respectively) [29], and for an hydro-methanolic extract on MCF-7 human breast carcinoma cell lines (IC 50 of 84.88 µg/mL) [30]. Similar to our cell line-dependence findings for P. niruri phenolic extracts, other studies performed on hydro-methanolic extracts of P. amarus and P. virgatus report lower cytotoxicity on Hep G2 hepatic carcinoma (IC 50 > 250 µg/mL) [31].…”

Anti-Inflammatory and Antioxidative Potential of Aloe vera on the Cartap and Malathion Mediated Toxicity in Wistar Rats

“…Plants are the richest source of antioxidants [ 18 ]. A. vera collected in several geographic locations contained various secondary metabolites and several natural antioxidative agents [ 19 ]. However, no evidence is available to ascertain the ameliorative effects of the whole leaf of A. vera or any isolated compound from it in alleviation of pesticide toxicity.…”

Could We Really Use Aloe vera Food Supplements to Treat Diabetes? Quality Control Issues

“…All these phenolic natural products are missing in Aloe food supplements as they are effectively removed by the industrial processing procedures employed. Other studies on A. vera food supplements also reported that polyphenols including flavonoids and tannins, which are effectively removed during the industrial processing, cannot be detected [ 40 ].…”