Table 6.
Bioactive effects of Aloe plant species: pre-clinical (in vitro and in vivo) studies.
| Biological Activities | Observed Effects | Active Molecules | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wound healing and cell proliferation | Skin damage treatment, cell type proliferation stimulation, cell phagocytic activity stimulation, wound contraction rate, collagen and elastin synthesis increase, fibroblast proliferation, hyaluronic acid, and hydroxyproline production | Mannose-6-phosphate, polysaccharides, glycoproteins, saponins, acemannan | [5,33,135,174,175,176,178,179,180,184,185,186] |
| Intestinal absorption and purgative action | Drug permeability increase (opening tight junctions), intestinal water absorption reduction, mucus secretion stimulation, reduce visceral fat accumulation, reduce large-sized intestinal polyps, intestinal motility improvement | Anthraquinones (aloin, aloe-emodin, emodin), pytosterols | [5,133,188,189,190,191,192,194] |
| Anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory | Phagocytic and prolifertive activity raise (through cyclooxygenase (COX) pathways inhibition and prostaglandins production reduction), abolish albumin gene transcription, inflammatory processes inhibition (leukocyte adhesion and pro-inflammatory cytokines production reduction), cerebral ischemia and reperfusion injury attenuation (inhibition of systemic inflammatory response, leukocyte aggregation, and lipid peroxidation) | Aloe-emodin, polysaccharides, aloesin, anthraquinones, chromones | [2,148,199,200,201,202,203,204,205,206,207,208] |
| Hepatoprotective | Morphofunctional and molecular changes reduction, protection against hepatocyte death and lipid peroxidation, liver fatty acid synthesis downregulation and oxidation upregulation, cytokine level reduction, mRNA lipogenic gene expression suppression | Aloe-emodin, anthraquinones, phytosterols (lophenol, cycloartanol) | [74,133,209] |
| Antioxidant | Free radical scavenging activity, free radicals’ generation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production suppression, lipid peroxidation reduction, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity raise | Aloesin, aloeresin A, and aloesone | [44,49,198,212,213,214,215,216,217,218] |
| Antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral | Phagocytic leukocyte activity stimulation, cytotoxic effects, alkalization promotion and constipation alleviation, virus replication inhibition | Emodin, aloin A, aloe-emodin, saponins, chrysophanol, acemannan, pyrocatechol, polysaccharides | [6,56,58,67,71,76,79,136,146,148,170,181,192,198,219,220,221,222,223,224,225,226,227,228,229,230,231,232,233] |
| Anticancer | Chemopreventive activity, VEGF secretion inhibition, tumor angiogenesis and angiogenic response inhibition, proliferation inhibition and endothelial cell migration, N-acetyl transferase activity and gene expression inhibition, STAT3 activation blocking, benzopyrene binding, iNOS, NFkB, and P53 activity inhibition, TNF-α, IL-1, and interferon production stimulation | Aloin, aloe-emodin, rhein, acemannan, barbaloin, physcion, chrysophanol, aloesin, diethyl hexylphthalate and an N-terminal octapeptide | [148,184,225,234,235,236,237,238,239,240,241,242,243,244,245,246,247,248,249,250,251,252,253,254,255] |
| Antidiabetic | Glucose transporter mRNA expression modulation, reduce fasting blood glucose levels, glucose transport improvement through proximal and distal marker modulation | Polysaccharides, phytosterols (lophenol, 24-methyl-lophenol, 24-ethyl-lophenol, cycloartanol and 24-methylene cycloartenol), aloe-emodin-8-O-glycoside | [37,73,74,148,183,255,256,257,258,259,260] |
| Antihyperlipidemic | Reduce visceral fat mass, total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL and VLDL levels, glucose intolerance and lipid metabolizing enzymes improvement and abnormal estrous cyclicity reversion | Phytosterols | [261,262,263,264,265] |
| Estrogen status | Suppress breast cancer cells proliferation, estrogen receptor-α inhibition | Emodin, aloe-emodin | [52,263] |
| Antiulcer | Promote digestion, cytoprotection, dose-dependent gastric acid secretion inhibition | Plant extract | [5,266,267,268,269] |
| Skin use | Increase type I and type III collagen synthesis gene expression and hyaluronic acid levels, tyrosinase inhibitory activity, | Sterols, aloin, aloesin | [270,271,272,273,274,275] |
| Antiallergic | Reduce histamine release, stimulate leukotriene synthesis and secretion, protein kinase C and phospholipase C activities inhibition, Ca2+ influx blocking during mast cell activation | Glycoprotein | [276] |
VEGF: vascular endothelial growth factor; iNOS: inducible nitric oxide synthase; NFκB: nuclear factor κB; TNF-α: tumor necrosis factor α; IL-1: interleukin 1; LDL: low density lipoprotein; VLDL: very low density lipoprotein.