Page 24 - MI TTC 14 SEPT 2015

LOCAL A13
Aruba Aloe Celebrates 125 Years
n 1890, the seeds were liter-
ally sown for a lasting leg-
acy near and dear to Aru-
ba’s heart. Cornelis Eman
embarked on a journey
that would have lasting
effects on the island both
economically and cultural-
ly. On a dusty plot of land
scorched by the sun and
wind in the area known as
Hato, Cornelis saw growth
and opportunity when
many dismissed Aruba as
a place where not much
of anything of economic
significance was grown or
harvested.
Although the Dutch intro-
duced the Aloe vera plant
to the island in the 1840s, it cause they were essential-
was Cornelis’s initiative to
cultivate Aloe vera com-
mercially that put Aruba
on the map as “The Island
of Aloes.”
By 1905, Aruba Aloe Balm,
Inc. was the world’s big-
gest producer of Aloin, a
raw, yellowish substance
produced from the cells of
the plant (mainly used as a
laxative), selling it to phar-
maceutical companies in-
ternationally via Curacao.
Cornelis’s son, Casey,
eventually took the reins,
building a factory to pro-
cess the raw aloin for me-
dicinal purposes. In an in-
terview with Dr. Koos Veel,
who has been with Aruba
Aloe Balm for the past 31
years, Dr. Veel explains
Monday 14 September 2015
that “it was an ambitious pharmaceutical giants, the standard treatment Veel. The Aruba Aloe Balm
project for that time—lots sold the business to his here in Aruba.” products attracted an in-
of machinery and tech- brother, Jani. In the 1960s, Jani built a ternational audience, put-
nology—but Casey was Jani had a new vision for plant to process the gel to ting the company’s main
able to achieve produc- put into cosmetics. “You focus on exporting again.
tion of more than 30 per- Aruba Aloe Balm—cos- have to imagine, back In 1986, Henny Eman be-
cent of the world’s aloe at metic products. Explains then nobody in the world came Aruba’s prime min-
that time, which is a huge Dr. Veel, “Jani knew the knew about Aloe as a ister. Understandably, his
achievement for a little benefits of using the gel ex- cosmetic product, yet he political duties to his coun-
company on a tiny island tracted from the leaves… was far ahead of his time, try left little time to run the
in the Caribbean.” locals had already discov- putting it in lotions and growing Aloe company,
ered the benefits of using creams,” says Dr. Veel. prompting him to eventu-
Casey’s success was short- the gel as a moisturizer, or For the most part, the Aru- ally sell it to Louis Posner, a
lived, as the giant pharma- for burns and abrasions; ba Aloe Balm products successful local business-
ceutical companies, who you have a skin problem, were only sold in stores and man, in 2000.
were once buying the un- you go straight to the gar- pharmacies on the island. Louis pushed for further
processed Aloin, stopped den, cut open a leaf, and But in 1980, the Eckerd globalization of the brand
buying any Aloe prod- put the gel on it—that was Pharmacy chain in Flori- and built a modern factory
ucts—raw or processed— da began importing Aru- next to the original Hato
from Aruba Aloe Balm be- ba Aloe Balm products, Aloe fields, with a com-
launching a new era for panion museum offering
ly in competition with them the company. tours. The fields were fur-
for the processed medici- Unfortunately, Jani passed ther cultivated, more prod-
nal product. away a year later. ucts developed, and new
Casey, defeated by the Cornelis’s great-grandson, packaging was achieved
Henny Eman, took over in for the brand’s products.
1984, hiring Professor H.E. “The changes and invest-
Junginger, Ph.D, a pharma- ment were remarkable
ceutical technology pro- and paid off,” informs Dr.
fessor, and Dr. Koos Veel. Veel, “and to date we
“We developed a whole have 17 stores in Aruba,
new line of products—from one in Indianapolis, and
shampoos and deodor- one in Amsterdam…we
ants to skincare and sun- also have websites in the
tan products—increasing U.S. and Europe that gen-
the product line from five erate impressive Internet
to 100 products,” says Dr. sales, and more than 80
employees locally.” No-
tably, Aruba Aloe Balm
also has a medical-grade
cream, Alhydran, that is
revered by the medical
community and sold in 28
countries for its healing ef-
fects on burns and wounds,
and for the reduction of
scarring of the skin.
Concludes Dr. Veel, “The
Arubans still see Aloe as a
very important part of their
culture and history—you
see it in the Coat of Arms of
Aruba, you see it on some
of the older houses in the
form of decoration (folk-
loric hex signs were once
very popular on homes in
Aruba), and many Arubans
still go right to their gardens
for treatment using their
homegrown Aloe.”q