Aloe vera and health outcomes: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Abstract

This umbrella review aims to summarize and assess the effects of Aloe vera on health outcomes. Methods: Only systematic reviews and meta-analyses of clinical trials that investigated the effects of Aloe vera on health outcomes were eligible. PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Cochrane database of systematic reviews, CINAHL, and AMED were searched from inception to October 2019. Two independent reviewers extracted data, assessed the methodological quality, and rated the credibility of evidence according to established criteria into convincing, highly suggestive, suggestive, weak, and not significant. Results: Ten articles reporting 71 unique outcomes of Aloe vera were included. Of these, 47 (67%) were nominally statistically significant based on the random-effects model (p ≤ 0.05). Only 3 outcomes were supported by highly suggestive evidence including the benefits of Aloe vera in the prevention of second-degree infusion phlebitis (RR: 0.18, 95% CI: 0.10-0.32) and chemotherapy-induced phlebitis based on the second-degree of severity and overall incidence (OR: 0.10, 95% CI: 0.07-0.14, and OR: 0.13, 95% CI: 0.08-0.20, respectively). Conclusions: The current evidence suggests the benefits of Aloe vera in the prevention of phlebitis induced by chemotherapy and intravenous infusion, particularly in the severe stage. Aloe vera also showed favorable effects in other indications, but the majority of the evidence had limitations including small sample size and poor methodological quality.