After harvested, the aloe leaves has two distinct parts to be used for commercial purposes: the aloe bitter and the aloe gel.

The aloe bitter is the yellow exudate (also known as the bitter sap), which drains from the outer green skin of the leaves when cut.

The aloe gel comes from the remainder of the leaf that contains such mucilaginous gel.

When aloe bitter is to be obtained, the aloe plant is harvested by cutting various lower leaves from the plant. In some parts of South Africa, where aloe ferox is mainly harvested, roughly 200 leaves are stacked in a circle to allow the yellow bitter sap to drain from the leaves. In Venezuela or Mexico, the process is similar but aloe barbadensis miller leaves are used instead. Venezuela is today the first aloe sap producing country in the world, and Falcon state is where the industry cluster is located.

The bitter sap is collected and then sold as crude bitter or boiled to remove excess water to produce the bitter crystals, also commonly known as aloe paste. Aloin and barbaloin content is different in crude or cooked aloe bitter presentations.

By the other side, the inner filets are then processed at a processing factory to manufacture the aloe gel and aloe juice.

Usually, the native plants in South Africa allow to obtain the two products, while in some places in Mexico or Venezuela, where aloe bitter is produced, the plantations are solely cultivated for such a purpose and don´t allow to obtain aloe gel, because they are under a strong hydrical stress to obtain higher quantities of aloe bitter. Furthermore, aloe plantation densities are larger when aloe is being cultivated to obtain the bitter. Aloe plantations for gel productions are different and has lower density of plants per hectare.

In the aloe bitters (Viljoen 1999, Van Wyk 1995), the anthrones and chromones are the two major classes of compounds, which are found in leaf exudates (22% – 29%). The anthrones are aloin and barbaloin (collective name for aloin A and B) and the chromones are the aloesin and aloeresin A. Also, anthraquinones, naphthalene, alkaloids and various other compounds may be present.

In the aloe gel (Mabusela 1990), the primary constituents are glucomannoglycan polysaccharides containing acetylated monosaccharides, (~70-80%) acemannan (mannose) and glucomannan (glucose). Other constituents are Amino acids (10-15%) , alicylic acid, lignin, saponins and sterols; fatty acids (gamma-linolenic acid [GLA]); enzymes, vitamins and minerals. However, it must be noted, that concentrations tend to vary seasonally and geographically (Grindlay 1986).