So, one of my aloe plants decided it didn't want to live anymore and jumped out of its pot. Or it just grew too high and light soil wasn't able to hold it anymore. Who knows... who knows...

The stem of the plant was broken so just planting it back as it is wasn't an option. Also I wanted to try one recipe involving aloe juice for a long time, so it was a good opportunity.

This tincture is recommended as tonicizing remedy and does good in cases of general weakness. But, please, take to the account that I'm not a doctor or an expert in traditional medicine. I found this recipe in a book, and it doesn't contain any dangerous ingredients from my point of view. However, be conscious about what you're doing, do your own research or consult a specialist. Don't blame me if things go wrong.

Now let's go back to our suicidal aloe.

Step 1:

Firstly I have separated smaller baby aloes from the motherplant. Then I cut the top part and bottom section of stem with root off to be planted again. Then I've collected all usable leaves. Any rotten and dryed parts should be removed.

The recepy doesn't specify what kind of aloe should be used, but I know, that atleast two kinds: Aloe Vera and Aloe Arborescens are commonly used in native medicine. Do your own research if you're not sure. Mine is Aloe Arborescens. It grows up creating a stem made of previous leaves' bases (or something like that). You can harvest lower growing leaves from multiple plants, or grow one plant big enough, cut the top, as I did, root it in sand and plant it later again. All remaining leaves can be used then.

Some sources say that it's best to use 3-4 years old aloes for medicional porpouses due to highest ammount of usefull stuff in the plant of this age.

Recipe calls for not watering the plant for three days before harvesting leaves. I don't know why.

Step 2:

When the leaves are harvested, wash them and leave them for a while for the remaining water to dry.

Step 3:

At this point I'm making one extra step. It's not neccessary and the original recipe doesn't call for this, but I'm kind of experimenting here.

So, famous soviet oftalmologist V.P. Filatov discovered that most plants, when placed in harsh conditions actively producing bioactive substances, that have noticable positive influence on human organism, when consumed. He experimented with aloe in particular and used bioactivated aloe juice to treat an array of... illneses.

So, to produce bioactivated aloe juice, put the leaves in a paper bag and leave in refrigirator for two weeks (I kind of misremembered required duration so I kept them in a fridge only for few days).

If you don't want to experiment with stuff, go straight to next step.

Step 4:

Now, when your leaves are ready, process them with blender or chop them finely with a knife.

Step 5:

Original recipe calls for three ingredients in next proportions:

Aloe leaves - 100g;

Honey - 70g;

Kagor vine - 100ml.

I'll talk about Kagor wine in more details a bit later, but now I'm weighting my leaves pulp. I have 230 gramms, which means that 150g jar of honey I bought is just enough.

Mix honey with leaves pulp.

Step 6:

Transfer mixture into lidded jar. According to the recipe you should leave it for three days now. Since I used blender instead of chopping leaves with knife I reduces the duration to one day: infusion in this case goes quicker.

I left the jar in rather cold and dark place.

Step 7:

Later you should transport mixture into larger jar and add Kagor wine in proportions given in the recepy. I added twice as much cause I'm an alcoholic.

Kagor is sweet red and rather strong (16-18% of alcohol) wine. In Slavic countryes this type of wine is usually used on religious events, but it's not obligatory. It can be substituted with any similar type of wine.

After that the mixture has to be leaved for one week.