Aloe is an attractive potential food source because it has functional uses. It has been widely used as a well-being food and drink. The antioxidant activity was estimated by measuring DPPH free radical scavenging activity. We investigated the quality characteristics of cookies prepared by adding various concentrations of aloe powder (0%, 1%, 3%, 5%, all w/w) as a substitute for flour. In this study, the DPPH free radical scavenging activity, moisture content, and hardness of cookies significantly increased with increasing aloe powder, while the pH, spread factor and L and b values slightly decreased. Sensory evaluation scores in terms of texture were shown to be very similar statistically, but color, flavor, taste, and overall acceptability scores were lower than the control. As a result of this study, the quality of cookies with the addition of 1% aloe powder were the most suitable in terms of taste, flavor, texture, and sensory properties.

The extracellular polysaccharide production from suspension culture of Aloe vera L. was analyzed, and the optimization for suspension cultivation was investigated. From specific polysaccharide assay of glucomannan, FT-IR and 1H NMR spectrum, the extracellular polysacchride from suspension culture was found to be similar to β-1,4-glucomannan originated from Aloe vera fresh leaf. The polysaccharide existed in an acetylated form and its molecular weight by gel permeation chromatography was estimated to be 490 kD (Mn = 440 kD; polydispersity = 1.115). From medium optimization by simplex-cemtroid design using MINITAB®, the callus growth on the 2,4-D of 11.82 μM, kinetin of 13.84 μM and α-naphthalene acetic acid of 4.34 μM was turned out to be significantly superior than the growth on the other culture media combinations. Under this optimal culture media, other conditions such as the suspension culture's temperature, pH and the growth terms were determined. These results showed that the callus growth was optimum at 25oC, pH 5.5 and in 2 weeks. The maximum levels of growth and extracellular polysaccharide production of callus by optimal conditions were about 20.4 and 2.5 g/L, respectively, showing the profile of extracellular polysaccharide production was closely related to the callus growth.

A callus formation from Aloe vera L. was inducted, and the tissue cultivation of induced callus was investigated. As a result of using a combined growth factors kinetin and NAA (or 2,4-D) varying from 0.5 to 30 μM and 3% sucrose in MS solid medium, the callus grew better than using either kinetin or auxins alone. Supplementation of 2,4-D in the combined growth factor formulation showed an enhanced callus growth. The maximum callus growth occurred when kinetin 5 μM and 2,4-D 30 μM were added in the MS medium. The optimal culture conditions for the callus growth were 25oC, pH 5.5 and 8-10 weeks of cultivation, yielding callus weight of 11.03 mg/aloe tissue (0.5 cm2). Water or ethanol (60%, v/v) extracts from Aloe callus contained the bioactives contents of fresh Aloe vera gel such as glucomannan, and the level of total phenolics content was much higher than that of Aloe vera whole leaf, suggesting the possibility as an alternative production method of Aloe vera bioactives.