Aloe

This aloe plant is one of a series of eight oil paintings that once hung in a pharmacy in the Loire Valley that was destroyed in the French Revolution. While the name of the artist and the exact origin of the paintings are unknown, each plant in the series is painted against a light blue background with its roots exposed, suggesting its medicinal value.

The therapeutic properties of common aloe were recorded as early as 1500 B.C. in the Ebers papyrus, an Egyptian medical manuscript. The leaves of the genus Aloe contain a juice and a gel that can be used as moisturizers, laxatives, and antiseptics. A popular treatment for burns and wounds, aloe was a central herb for a seventeenth-century apothecary. This aloe plant is portrayed in a naturalistic setting, surrounded by a dragonfly, a caterpillar, and a black rhinoceros beetle.