Aloe Juices, Gels, and Supplements Review

How Products Were Evaluated

Written by Mark Anderson, Ph.D. — Medically reviewed and edited by Tod Cooperman, M.D.

How Products were Selected:
Products tested represent those commonly sold and/or available nationally in the U.S. ConsumerLab.com purchased products on the open market through retail stores, on-line retailers, and direct sales companies. Products were not accepted directly from manufacturers.

Testing Methods:

Identification and quantification of acetylated mannose polysaccharide (D-acemannan), glucose, and malic acid, and identification of whole leaf marker compounds by quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (qNMR).
Identification and quantification of aloin A, aloin B and emodin by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)for product listing Aloe ferox, Cape aloe, aloe latex, or containing whole leaf marker or extract.
Heavy metals:
Quantitative analysis of lead, cadmium, and arsenic by ICP-MS or other appropriate methods determined by CL.
Disintegration of tablets (excluding chewable, sublingual and time-release formulations) utilizing United States Pharmacopeia (USP) <2040> recommendations entitled "Disintegration and Dissolution of Nutritional Supplements."

Any product that did not initially pass a test was sent to another independent laboratory to repeat testing for the criterion on which it did not pass.

ConsumerLab.com may modify or use other appropriate test methods if necessary to test special product formulations.

The identities of the products were not disclosed to the laboratories performing the testing.

Passing Score:*

To achieve a "Pass" in the testing, a product had to:

D-Acemannan:
- Aloe powders: Contain at least 5% D-acemannan in an aloe vera gel (dry weight) or 200:1 extract (International Aloe Science Council (IASC) and American Herbal Pharmacopeia specifications for raw material).
- Drinkable aloe juices, gels, liquid extracts and distillates: Contain at least 0.25 mg of D-acemannan per mL (Based on an expected concentration of 0.5% solids in aloe juice (IASC) and a minimum expected concentration of 5% D-acemannan in such solids (IASC).
- Topicals: Contain at least 0.25 mg of D-acemannan per mL of aloe ingredient. If multiple ingredients listed with aloe vera juice or equivalent listed first, divide 1 ml by number of ingredients. (Based on an expected concentration of 0.5% solids in aloe juice (IASC) and a minimum expected concentration of 5% D-acemannan in such solids (IASC).
- All products must contain a detectable amount of D-acemannan, malic, and glucose.
Aloin A, aloin B and emodin:

Products containing aloe vera extract or whole leaf marker compounds must contain no more than 10 ppm of aloins A + B (IASC) and no detectable emodin.
Products containing Aloe ferox, Cape aloe or leaf latex must contain not less than (NLT) 6% aloins A+B (USP-DSC 2016) and not more than (NMT) 0.5% emodin (European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products)

Heavy Metals: Products containing whole herbs and/or 250 mg or more of minerals per daily dose must not exceed the following limits:
Lead**:
- Products marketed for use by children may not exceed the State of California's Prop 65 limits for lead in dietary supplements of 0.5 mcg per recommended daily serving with an additional allowance of 0.8 mcg if the product contains more than 1,000 mg/day of calcium.
- Products with a single serving weights of less than 5 grams which are not marketed for use by children, may not exceed the State of California's Prop 65 limits for lead in dietary supplements of 0.5 mcg per recommended daily serving with an additional allowance of 0.4 mcg if containing 250-999 mg/day of any combination of elemental calcium, magnesium and potassium or 0.8 mcg if containing more than 1,000 mg/day of any combination of these minerals. An additional allowance of 0.5 mcg is provided if containing 250-999 mg/day of whole herb (not extract) or 1.0 mcg if containing 1000 mg/day or more of whole herb (not extract). However, total lead allowance will not exceed 2 mcg.
- Products with single serving weights of 5 grams or more which are not marketed for children may not exceed 2.5 mcg per serving nor 4.0 mcg per daily serving.
Cadmium**:
- If marketed for use by children, may not exceed 3.0 micrograms of cadmium per recommended daily serving (based on Canada's limit for a child weighing 75 lbs). If not marketed for use by children, may not exceed 4.1 micrograms of cadmium per recommended daily serving (based on the State of California's Prop 65 limit).
Arsenic:
- Contain less than 10 micrograms of total arsenic and no more than 5 micrograms of inorganic arsenic per daily serving (EPA and state of New Jersey limits - based on 1 liter of water).
Meet recommended USP <2040> parameters of disintegration for dietary supplement tablets (excluding, chewable, sublingual and time-release products).
Be in compliance with FDA labeling requirements.

A "Pass" was based on meeting the above criteria in either the first or second rounds of testing

* Passing scores allow for specific margins of technical error associated with each analysis. ConsumerLab.com reserves the right to disqualify a product at any time from passing its testing if it considers such product to display unacceptable variation, present a safety risk or to provide misleading or inaccurate information in its labeling.

** The State of California's Prop 65 law requires products exceeding this limit to bear a warning label.

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