HAYFEVER sufferer Agnieszka Fornalewska, 30, was so impressed when she tried aloe vera gel that she now sells it for a living.

"My hayfever started when I was just four and no one knew why because nobody else in my family suffered from it.

"It was getting so bad as I got older that I would get extremely itchy eyes and I couldn't sleep because my catarrh was so bad.

"All the time, every minute, 24 hours a day I would suffer.

"Then we went to a home exhibtion in Birmingham and there was an aloe vera stand and my boyfriend took a leaflet home with him."

Her boyfriend Tim then ordered some of the gel and asked Agnieszka, of Chesterton, near Bicester, to try it to see if it would help her hayfever.

"I thought that if strong medicines couldn't help, then neither could some veggie juice. Tim finally persuaded me but it tasted really bad. After a few days I got used to the horrid taste and my hayfever was cured in about ten days.

"I took the aloe vera twice a day and could go outside in the garden without any trouble at all.

"We still continue to take it twice a day. I was so impressed that I wanted to sell it.

"It works by unblocking your intestines so you can actually absorb vitamins and minerals and it makes your body stronger.

The merits of aloe vera have been felt by animals too. Jane Bogg knew something was up with her daughter's competition horse, The Glasgow Flyer. The gelding, affectionately known as Jimmy, just wasn't his usual, bouncy self.

So, with ten days to go, Jane, of Middle Field Farm, Witney, started putting aloe vera in his feed. Not only did he pick up - he went on to win the competition.

That was last year and, since then, Jane has put herself and several other horses on to aloe vera, all with encouraging results.

Jess Higginbottom, an animal behaviourist with a great interest in aloe vera products, said: "Stories like Jimmy's aren't unusual."

Jess, 24, of Harefields, Oxford, said: "I treated another horse which cut itself on barbed wire.

"It was seen by the vet, but the owner applied an aloe vera jelly on the wound and it healed really quickly," explained Jess, who also supplies the aloe vera products to humans.

So what is it about aloe vera that helps conditions ranging from irritable bowel syndrome to leg ulcers?

"I think the healing benefits of aloe vera have been known for a long time," said Jess, "the problem is that the public is getting confused by the number of products containing aloe vera on the market.

"The difference with the aloe I deal with is that it's concentrated. I drink the gel, as the liquid is called, every day and I haven't had the usual bout of winter colds and flu I normally get.

Agnieszka or her partner Tim Hill can be contacted on 01869 322118 to buy the aloe vera which has a 90-day money back guarantee. Magic onion ALOE Vera has been used by mankind for thousands of years.

It is a member of the lily and onion family, also related to garlic and asparagus. There are more than 300 varieties but only a few have medicinal properties. The most potent is aloe vera barbadensis miller.

Traders first brought aloe vera to London in 1693. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries it was one of the most popular prescribed and over-the-counter medicines. Aloe vera is rich in Vitamins D, C and E.

It was reputed to be used in both Nerfertiti and Cleopatra's beauty regimes and supposition has it that Alexander the Great was persuaded by his mentor Aristotle to capture the Island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean for its famed aloe supplies needed to treat his soldiers. It tasted awful but it worked! WE decided to try our own independent - but highly subjective - test of aloe vera gel.

Reporter Gemma Simms has suffered from Irritable Bowel Syndrome for the past year.

The IBS would get so bad that she would sometimes have to miss meals, fearing that certain foods would trigger off the extremely painful spasms and bloatedness, or go to bed really early to sleep off most of the pain.

She described the feeling as if someone was taking her colon and twisting it tightly before filling the whole of her stomach with helium.

"I felt I hadn't received enough help or advice from doctors who just prescribed me a fibre drink which wasn't what I needed - my problems were more to do with the painful spasms and terrible bloatedness, and even tablets from chemists didn't help soothe the pain."

Gemma decided to try out the aloe vera gel drink for a few weeks to see its effectiveness. "Nothing could possibly have prepared me for the undescribable foul taste - it is enough to make anyone sick. But after the first week of taking it morning and night, I felt less bloated and the heavy feeling really did begin to vanish.

"The only drawback is the disgusting taste which occasionally prevents me from taking my dose. I always regret it, as the spasms return if I go a few days without the gel - the aloe vera really does work."

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