Aloe Ferox plants grow wild right throughout the western, southern and eastern Cape regions of South Africa. The plants are not cultivated, and occur naturally on private farmland as well as open, uninhabited government-owned land.

The leaves are harvested by farm workers and their families, and the harvesting or “tapping” process as it is known, has been passed down from generation to generation.
Only the lower leaves of a mature plant are cut, once a year, thus enabling the plant to continue to grow. Each year when the plants flower in the winter months, they produce seeds which drop near the “mother plant”, and within a few months the new, baby plants are clearly visible next to the adult. After four years, these new plants are also ready to be tapped.

The plants used in production of Totally Wild’s aloe juice and food products are therefore plants which are growing wild, in their natural habitat, and are not treated with any fertilizers, pesticides or chemicals of any kind which could impact on the quality of the final product.

Lower leaves being tapped from mature aloe Ferox plants

A field of aloe Ferox plants in flower

The harvesters cut approximately 20 - 30 leaves from a mature plant, and place these leaves in a circle around a plastic-lined hollow in the ground, with the cut end towards the centre of the circle. This allows the dark brown, bitter sap to drain out of the leaf, where it is later collected and processed into “aloe lump” or “aloe crystal”. This sap occurs in tiny capillaries which are situated between the outer green skin of the leaf and the white, inner flesh.

The key feature of the aloe “crystal” is one of the components called “aloin” which has extremely strong laxative properties. This product is exported in bulk to pharmaceutical companies in Europe and the Far East where it is refined and used in many laxative products, produced in these countries. The leaves, once drained of most of the bitter sap, are transported to a pre-processing factory nearby, where they are cleaned, sorted and peeled.The inner flesh is packed in drums and sent to Totally Wild’s processing facility in Cape Town.