Agave Tequilana

Agave Tequilana in an artistic color - captured in Casa GrandeAZ

Agave tequilana,
commonly called blue agave, tequila agave, mezcal or maguey is an agave plant that is an important economic product of Jalisco, Mexico, due to its role as the base ingredient of tequila, a popular distilled spirit. The high production of sugars—mostly in the form of fructose—in the core of this plant, are the most important element for the preparation of alcoholic beverages.
The tequila agave is a native of Jalisco, Mexico. The tequila agave favors high altitudes of more than 1,500 meters and grows in rich and sandy soils. While commercial and wild agaves have different life cycles, both grow into large succulents, with spiky fleshy leaves, that can reach over two meters in height. Wild Agaves, however, sprout a shoot when about five years old, that can grow an additional five meters and are topped with yellow flowers.

The flowers are pollinated by a native bat (Leptonycteris nivalis) and produce several thousand seeds per plant. The plant then dies. The shoots are removed when about a year old from commercial plants to allow the heart to grow larger. The plants are then reproduced by planting these shoots; this has led to a considerable loss of genetic diversity in cultivated blue agave.

It is rare for one kept as a houseplant to flower; nevertheless, a fifty year old blue agave in Boston grew a 10 m (30 ft) stalk requiring a hole in the greenhouse roof and flowered in the summer of 2006.

Tequila is produced by removing the heart of the plant in its twelfth year. Normally weighing between 35–90 kg (77–198 lb). This heart is stripped of its leaves and heated to remove the sap, which is fermented and distilled. Other beverages like mezcal and pulque are also produced from blue and other agaves by different methods (though still using the sap) and are regarded as more traditional.

Researchers from Mexico's University of Guadalajara believe blue agave contains compounds that may be useful in carrying drugs to the intestines to treat diseases, such as Crohn's disease and colitis.

I hope you'll enjoy the read! Thank you foe all the comments on my last post!

Susanne

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You cannot ever be ugly

A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly.  You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.  

~Roald Dahl~

Hi my friends,

I love this quote! 

Quotes are always telling the true of meanings in life and are mirroring the good and bad things happen around you - quotes are like talking pictures.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog and for the comments too. Sometimes I wish, there would be some more, but that's fine with me how it is now. I know you all have a lot of things going on in these days - Christmas is just around the corner.

If you're looking for a special gift for that special someone, maybe I have the answer to it:

Buy my photography as a print, framed or stretched on Canvas here. 

Happy Tuesday!

~Susanne

oh, I almost forget to tell you: it's only 37F in Florida, just now! brrrrr....brrrr....

My Aloe Vera Plant

Aloe, also written Aloë, is a genus containing about four hundred species of flowering succulent plants.

The genus is native to Africa and is common in South Africa's Cape Province and the mountains of tropical Africa, and neighbouring areas such as Madagascar, the Arabian peninsula and the islands off Africa.

The APG II system (2003) placed the genus in the family Asphodelaceae. In the past it has also been assigned to families Aloaceae and Liliaceae. Members of the closely allied genera Gasteria, Haworthia and Kniphofia which have a similar mode of growth, are also popularly known as aloes. Note that the plant sometimes called "American aloe" (Agave americana), belongs to Agavaceae, a different family.

Most Aloes have a rosette of large, thick, fleshy leaves. The leaves are often lance-shaped with a sharp apex and a spiny margin. Aloe flowers are tubular, frequently yellow, orange or red and are borne on densely clustered, simple or branched leafless stems.

Many species of Aloe are seemingly stemless, with the rosette growing directly at ground level; other varieties may have a branched or un-branched stem from which the fleshy leaves spring. They vary in colour from grey to bright green and are sometimes striped or mottled.

Uses of Aloe

Aloe species are frequently cultivated as ornamental plants both in gardens and in pots. Many Aloe species are highly decorative and are valued by collectors of succulents. Some species, in particular Aloe vera are purported to have medicinal properties.

Other use of Aloes include their role in alternative medicines (see Herbalism) and in home first aid. Both the translucent inner pulp and the resinous yellow exudate from wounding the Aloe plant are used externally to relieve skin discomforts and internally as a laxative. To date, some research has shown that Aloe vera produces positive medicinal benefits for healing damaged skin. Conversely, other research suggests Aloe vera can negatively affect healing (Vogler and Ernst, 1999). In homeopathic medicine aloe is used for hemorrhoids^[1].

Some Aloe species have also been used for human consumption. For example, drinks made from or containing chunks of aloe pulp are popular in Asia as commercial beverages and as a tea additive; this is notably true in Korea.

External uses

Aloe is used externally to treat a number of skin irritations. It has antiseptic and antibiotic properties which make it highly valuable in treating cuts and abrasions. It has also been commonly used to treat first and second degree burns, as well as sunburns and poison oak, poison ivy, and poison sumac infections, and eczema. It can also be used as a hair styling gel and works especially well for curly or fuzzy hair.

Internal uses

Aloe vossii

Aloe contains a number of medicinal substances used as a purgative. The medicinal substance is produced from various species of aloe, such as A. vera, A. vulgaris, A. socotrina, A. chinensis, and A. perryi. Several kinds of aloes are commercially available: Barbadoes, Socotrine, Hepatic, Indian, and Cape aloes. Barbadoes and Socotrine are the varieties most commonly used for curative purposes^{[citation needed]}.

Aloes are the expressed juice of the leaves of the plant. When the leaves are cut, the juice that flows out is collected and evaporated. After the juice has been removed, the leaves are sometimes boiled to yield an inferior kind of aloes. The juice of the leaves of certain species, e.g. Aloe venenosa, is poisonous.

There have been very few properly conducted studies about possible benefits of aloe gel taken internally. One study found improved wound healing in mice. Another found a positive effect of lowering risk factors in patients with heart disease. Some research has shown decreasing fasting blood sugar in diabetic animals given aloe^[2][3][4][5]. None of these studies can be considered to be definitive, and there are many false advertising claims for aloe.

Aloe has been marketed as a remedy for coughs, wounds, ulcers, gastritis, diabetes, cancer, headaches, arthritis, immune-system deficiencies, and many other conditions when taken internally. However, these uses are unsubstantiated; the only substantiated internal use is as a laxative. Furthermore, there is evidence of potential adverse side effects (for example, acute hepatitis^[6]). Although some studies suggest that certain components of aloe such as aloe-emodin have genotoxic activity, human clinical trials and rodent carcinogenicity studies do not substantiate a genotoxic risk to humans when aloe products are consumed as directedBrusick D, Mengs U (1997). "Assessment of the genotoxic risk from laxative senna products". Environ Mol Mutagen 29 (1): 1-9 . PMID 9020301. .

On May 9, 2002, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule banning the use of aloe and cascara sagrada as laxative ingredients in over-the-counter drug products.^{[citation needed]}

Let's go to the Beach

It's weekend again and it's time to go to the beach.

Meet you there...?

If you would like to buy this picture please drop me an email to

susanne49@yahoo.com