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This study presents the chemical characteristics of flowers of Aloe vera as ingredient in food. The α-tocopherol, β-carotene, and β-sitosterol content as well as the oleoresin extraction for Aloe vera (L.) Burm f. flowers were evaluated using two agitation methods and four solvents. Then tocopherol, β-carotene, and β-sitosterol were quantified using an HPLC method. The statistical analysis revealed that the optimal extraction method for α-tocopherol was obtained by vortex agitation and acetone or ethyl acetate extraction, while for β-carotene, it was with acetone alone with no significant difference between agitation methods For β-sitosterol, the optimal method of extraction was acetone and vortex agitation. A proximate analysis of the dried Aloe flowers showed the average moisture, protein, lipid, fibre, and ash content to be 8.45%, 11.75%, 2.30%, 12.65%, and 8.07%, respectively. The best oleoresin extraction yield was by sonication using hexane as a solvent. Furthermore, Aloe flowers present an average of 30.71% inhibition for radical scavenging activity. Myristoleic acid was the most predominant fatty acid in the flowers, whereas arachidonic acid was the least abundant. Consequently, Aloe vera flowers were characterized to find their nutritional value and possible application in the food and pharmaceutical industry.

Aloin is an anthraquinone-C-glycoside present in Aloe vera. This compound is extremely variable among different species and highly depends on the growing conditions of the plants. The quantification of aloin in different extraction preparations has been a frequent problem due to the high instability of the compound. The aim of the present study is to develop and validated an analytical method for aloin detection in fresh and dry samples of Aloe barbadensis gel and latex using high performance liquid chromatography coupled to a diode array detector (HPLC-DAD). Phosphate buffered saline (pH 3) was selected as the extraction solvent. The aloin was separated using a Zorbax Eclipse AAA column (4.6 × 150 mm) at 35°C, and water and acetonitrile were used as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.9 mL/min. The linearity was satisfactory with a correlation coefficient greater than 0.999. Under these conditions, the method precision (relative standard deviation) was 3.71% for FL, 4.41% for dry latex, 0.81% for fresh gel and 4.42% for dry gel samples. Aloe latex was determined to have a greater amount of aloin than aloe gel. The method validation was satisfactory and exhibited adequate linearity, repeatability and accuracy. This research was financed by project PROFAPI no. 2016-0025 from Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion