Socotrine aloes are always preferred for medicinal purposes, and are the only variety used in perfumery, varnishes, and other nice purposes in the arts.
=Aloes, Strained.= _Syn._ MELTED ALOES; ALOË COLA'TA, L. _Proc._ 1. The aloes are melted in a copper pan, by the heat of steam or a water bath, and are then pressed through a strong hair or wire sieve, and allowed to cool.
2. As above, but with the addition of about twice its weight of water; the decoction being strained and evaporated.
_Obs._ Mocha, Indian, and other common aloes, treated in this way and coloured, are frequently sold for melted or strained 'Socotrines' and 'hepatics.' The colouring matter usually employed is the precipitated carbonate of iron (sesquioxide), or Venetian red, in very fine powder, with, sometimes, a little annatto. This fraud is not readily detected by mere inspection, by those unaccustomed to these matters; and hence the impunity with which it is perpetrated.
The object in melting aloes is to deprive it of the foreign matters, as sand, leaves, pieces of wood, &c., which the commoner kinds generally contain in large quantities. The action of the heat drives off much of their nauseous smell, at the same time that it deepens their colour, and renders their appearance more translucent and resinous, to the disguise of their original nature. The operation, on the large scale, is usually carried on at night, in consequence of the horribly nauseous fumes evolved, which may be smelt at a great distance, and contaminate the clothes of those engaged in it for a long time afterwards.
=AL'OES HEMP.= A plant growing in Peru, the East and West Indies, and Mexico (_A. Americana_, _A. vivapara_, _A. f[oe]tida, &c._), where the leaf is cultivated for its fibre, which is generally of a yellowish-white colour, and used for rope-making.
=AL'OES WOOD.= _Syn._ AL'OE-WOOD; EAGLEWOOD; AGAL'LOCHUM (-k[)u]m), LIG'NUM AL'OËS, L. AGAL'LOCHI, L. A. VE''RI, L. AQ'UILÆ, L. ASPAL'ATHI, L.; AGALLOCHE, BOIS D'ALOÈS, Fr.; ALOEHOLZ, Ger.; CALAM'BAC, CALAM'BOUC, Ind.; XYLO-AL'OËS[dagger]. A name applied to the wood of _alöex'ylon agal'lochum_ (Lam.), a leguminous tree of Cochin China; and, though apparently less correctly, to that of _aquila''ria agallochum_ and _a. ova'ta_ (Lour.), trees of tropical Asia, belonging to a different nat. order. Both are highly fragrant and aromatic; used in fumigations and pastilles, and occasionally by cabinet makers and inlayers. The essential oil of the wood, dissolved in spirit, was regarded by Hoffmann as one of the best cordials and invigorants known. The same has also been said of a tincture of its resin.