Design, development, and performance evaluation of an aloe vera gel extractor

Abstract

Aloe vera is a spiky, succulent, perennial plant and a native to warm dry regions, especially southern Europe, Asia and it has been used for medicinal purposes. In this study, a hand-operated Aloe Vera Gel extractor was developed and machine capacity, machine efficiency, and loss percentage were studied. The comparative performance evaluation of the designed extractor with that of traditional method (manually by knife) indicated that the extractor offered higher gel yield (83%), capacity (21 kg/h) than the traditional method offered gel yield (30%), capacity (4 kg/h) with uniform removal of gel from leaves. The speed of cutting by the designed extractor was about 5 times higher than the traditional gel removing process. The aloe vera extractor is simple in design, economical in construction and operator friendly. Therefore, it can be afforded by the rural farmers and small entrepreneurs for aloe vera processing and value addition.