Aloe vera is a rich source of many natural-health-promoting substances. The results of contemporary research on animal models indicate that the extracts háve an antiinflammatory property. In this work the results of some in vitro experiments are shown: determination of the inhibitory effect of the Aloe vera extracts on the activity of partially purified lipoxygenase from the rat lung cytosol fraction, and quantitative determination of the trace ele-ments presented in the extract (Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn) carried out by using the x-ray fluorescence analysis. The fin-dings could explain the inhibitory effect (antilipoxygenase activity) of the Aloe vera extract in the acute inflam-mation process, expecially in the topical application for healing of minor burns and skin ulcers

        Key words: Aloe vera - lipoxygenase - trace elements - x-ray fluorescence analysis