Treatment of constipation with Aloe and its compatibility prescriptions

Constipation is a common and prevalent digestive system disease in clinical practice, which seriously affects human physical and mental health. Currently, chemical drugs have good short-term therapeutic effects. However, because of their adverse reactions, easy recurrence after drug discontinuation, and dependence with long-term use, the long-term efficacy is unsatisfactory. The pathogenesis of constipation is mainly attributed to dysfunction of zang-fu organs and imbalance of qi-blood and yin-yang, with the syndrome being asthenia in origin and asthenia in superficiality. Aloe is a traditional Chinese medicine with cold properties and a bitter taste, and one of the most commonly used herbs for constipation. Based on Aloe and its monomer components, combined with the existing compatibility studies of Aloe and several Chinese patent drugs represented by Aloe, this paper comprehensively and systematically introduced the research progress of Aloe and its compatibility prescriptions in the treatment of constipation from basic experiments to clinical observations, providing theoretical basis and medication guidance for the clinical rational application of Aloe and its prescriptions in the treatment of constipation. At the same time, it also provides the direction for future research on the mechanism of Aloe in the treatment of constipation.