How should I cut an Aloe vera plant for extracting juice?

Question

I am about to buy an Aloe vera plant for extracting its juice. I have heard that a leaf needs to be cut so that juice can be extracted from it.

My questions are:

• How should I cut the leaf without too much damage to the plant?
• How much leaf is needed for 1 tablespoon of juice?
• How frequently can I cut the leaves?
• How long will the plant be able to survive if I go on like this?

I wish to keep this Aloe vera plant alive permanently (for a long time) in my house so that I can extract juice as needed.

Answer 1

Here are the answers to your questions in order:

1. Cut the leaf as close to the base of the plant as possible to be able to extract as much of the Aloe Vera Gel as possible.
2. About 2-3 inches of leaf should provide a tablespoon of juice if cut at the widest part of the leaf.
3. Always leave a couple of leaves on the plant to keep it healthy enough to regrow. I buy my Aloe Leaves at Wholefoods, their stores stock them.
4. As I mentioned about don't cut all of the leaves off unless you want the plant to die.

Top tip! Make sure you remove the Aloin compound which is the yellowish slimy layer underneath the skin of the leaf and only use the pure gel underneath for juicing. The Aloin compound is a natural laxative. Beware!

For more top tips on Aloe Vera Check out the link below. http://www.aloeverahq.com/how-to-make-your-own-aloe-vera-juice/

Answer 2

UPDATE 6/12/15 (or 12/6/15 for the States)

The answer I gave below is rendered largely irrelevent and pointless because the question has been altered in such a way that there is now no mention of daily use. I'll leave it on in case the links are of any use though.

You're going to need a lot more than one aloe vera plant if you want to extract juice daily. Every time you want some juice, you have to remove a healthy leaf; obviously, if you do that every day, and your plant originally has 10 leaves, you'll have ten day's worth of juice and a dead plant if you remove all the foliage all the time.

Link below gives info on how to extract/use the juice, but there are plenty of places on the internet, including Youtube videos, which show you how to do it, just Google 'How to extract Aloe vera juice from Aloe at home' and plenty of others will come up

http://naturalthrifty.com/aloe-vera-juice.html

Here's another link, a UK one, but the info's the same apart from growing techniques - right at the bottom, it tells you that your plant should be Aloe barbadensis if you want to consume the juice fresh. It also gives a couple more descriptions as to how to extract the juice without the latex, which is highly laxative and probably not a desirable addition to your diet on a daily basis.

http://rawedibleplants.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/aloe-vera-aloe-barbadensis-or-aloe-vera.html

Answer 3

Is this juice for skin care or consumption?

The juice for skin-care does not need to be as carefully extracted as the juice for consumption. The below videos show the processes

1. How to Use An Aloe Vera Plant For Skin Care where the instructor cuts the Aloe Vera plant just besides the end of the leave not damaging other leaves.

2. How to Prepare and Eat Aloe where the instructor avoids the yellow juice while eating the clear gel inside the plant.

where it is important that the yellow juice is not used for consumption. The first video is shorter with skin care focus while the second longer with consumption focus.

Needed

Get Spatula and a knife to extract the non-yellow gel and juice inside the green leaves. Rinse the inside with water to extract the yellow, not for consumption, while the white gel with white content can be consumed. A blender is nice for smoothies.

Other Aloe related Questions

1. Is the gel of all Aloe Vera plants suitable for consumption?

2. Which Aloe Vera plant has the most healing property?