Aloe Vera (Medicinal Plant) Research: A Scientometric Assessment of Global Publications Output during 2007-16

The paper examines 1988 global publications on Aloe Vera research, as covered in Scopus database during 2007-16. The Aloe Vera research registered 3.91% growth and averaged its citation impact to 9.57 citations per paper. The top 12 most productive countries individually contributed global share 5.36% to 52.17%. India accounted for the largest global publication share (32.55%), followed by USA (11.52%), Iran (8.15%), China (4.63%) etc. Together, the top 12 countries accounted for 79.18% global publications share and 84.94% global citation share during 2007-16. Seven of top 12 countries scored relative citation index above the world average i.e. 1.04: U.K. (1.82), Thailand and USA (1.63 each), Spain (1.23), Pakistan and China (1.15 each) and Italy (1.12) during 2007-16. The country share of international collaborative publications across top 12 most productive countries varied from 5.36% to 52.17%, in Aloe Vera research during 2007-16. Medicine, among other subjects, accounted for the highest publications share (40.90%), followed by pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics (35.16%), agricultural and biological sciences (23.09%), biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (20.27%), chemistry (7.90%), immunology and microbiology (6.24%) and engineering (5.38) during 2007-16. The top 20 most productive research organizations and the authors collectively contributed 11.47% and 8.55% respectively global publication share and 12.87% and13.82% respectively global citation share during 2007-16. The journals medium accounted for the largest 79.08% global share with top 15 journals accounting for just 16.01% of total output that was reported in journals during 2007-16. Only 18 papers in Aloe Vera research registered 100 plus citations between 104 to 242 citations per paper, and together these papers cumulated 2656 citations, averaging to 147.55 citations per paper. These 18 highly cited papers involved the participation of 66 authors and 41 organizations and were published in 15 journals.

Gujarat, Maharashtra etc. 3 Aloes are often thought to only grow in hot and dry climates, but they actually grow in a variety of climates including desert, grassland, and coastal or even alpine locations. 4or centuries, it has been medicinally used for an array of ailments such as mild fever, wounds and burns, gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes, sexual vitality and fertility problems to cancer, immune modulation, AIDS and various skin diseases.In the pharmaceutical industry, it has been used for the manufacture of topical products such as ointments and gel preparations, as well as in the production of tablets and capsules.So, there is an urgent need to educate about the miraculous uses of Aloe Vera along with its cultivation methods for human race and popularize it for greater interest. 5,6here are more than 200 compounds found in Aloe barbadensis, about 75 of which have biological activity, Aloe Vera leaves contain a diverse array of compounds, including anthraquinones (e.g.aloe-the total global publications output, 76.46% (1520) appeared as articles, 16.45% (327) as reviews, 2.26% (45) as conference papers, 1.21% (24) as letters, 1.06% (21) as articles in press, and the rest as notes, short surveys, editorials, book chapters and erratum.The citation impact of global publications on Aloe Vera research in 10 years averaged to 9.57 citations per publication (CPP) during 2007-16; five-yearly impact averaged to 16.30 CPP for the period 2007-11, which sharply declined to 4.67 CPP in the succeeding five-year 2012-16 Table 1.

Top 10 Most Productive Countries in Aloe Vera research
The global research output in the field of Aloe Vera research had originated from as many as 92 countries in the world during 2007-16.Of the 92 countries, 60 published 1-10 papers in 10 years, 23 countries 11-50 papers, 6 countries 51-100 papers and 3 counties 162 to 647 papers.The top 12 most productive countries in Aloe Vera research contributed 45 to 647 publications each during 2007- 16  emodin), anthrones and their glycosides (e.g.10-(1, 5' anhydroglucosyl)aloeemodin-9-anthrone, also known as aloin A and B), chromones, carbohydrates, proteins, glycoproteins, amino acids, organic acids, lipids, sugars, vitamins and minerals. 5,6loe Vera has number of uses and mainly they are used as a food preservative and medicine.Commercially, aloe can be found in pills, sprays, ointments, lotions, liquids, drinks, jellies, and creams.Numerous aloe species around the world are used for conditions ranging from dermatitis to cancer.Various studies have revealed that Aloe Vera leaf possesses many pharmaceutical activities, including antimicrobial, anticancer, antioxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-ulcer, hepato-protective, immune-modulatory and many more activities.Many of the health benefits associated with Aloe Vera have been attributed to the polysaccharides contained in the gel of the leaves. 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14

OBJECTIVES
The main objectives of this study are to study the performance of Aloe Vera research during 2007-16, based on publications output covered in Scopus database.In particular, the study focuses on the following objectives: (i) To study the growth of world research output in Aloe Vera research and its citation impact; (ii) To study the international collaboration share of top 10 most productive countries; (iii) To study the global research output by broad subject areas and the dynamics of its growth and decline; (iv) To study the trends by identifying significant keywords; (v) To study the publication productivity and citation impact of top 20 most productive organizations and authors; (vi) To study the modes of communication in research and (vii) to study the characteristics of top 18 highly cited papers.

METHODOLOGY
The study retrieved and downloaded 10-year publication data of the world in Aloe Vera research from the Scopus database (http://www.scopus.com)covering the period 2007-16.Keywords, such as "Aloe Vera'' was incorporated in the search string and qualified these keywords with "keyword tag", "Article Title tag", and in addition incorporated in this search string the period '2007-16' within "date range tag".Finally, this search string was applied for searching global publication data on Aloe Vera research.The search string was subsequently refined, using analytical functions and tags in Scopus database, by "subject area tag", "country tag", "source title tag", "journal title name" and "affiliation tag", to get data/information on the distribution of publications output by subject, collaborating countries, author-wise, organization-wise and journalwise, etc.For citation data, citations to publications were also collected from date of publication till 16

International Collaboration
The international collaborative output of top 12 most productive countries in Aloe Vera research as a national share in the country-wise output varied widely from 5.36% to 52.17%, with highest share coming from U.K. (52.17%), followed by USA (28.82%),Italy (26.92),Spain (24.44%),Pakistan (23.91%),Thailand (23.40%),China (21.74%),South Korea (17.65%),Brazil (15.38%),India (8.66%), Iran (8.02%) and Nigeria (5.36%) during 2007-16.Most surprisingly, India's international collaborative share in its national output in Aloe Vera research has been marginal, 8.66%.This trend could be attributed to its global leadership in Aloe Vera research.Being recognized a global research hub in the field, India's need for reliance on international collaboration in research has not been significant as it is by other top 12 most productive countries in Aloe Vera research.

Subject-Wise Distribution of Research Output
The December 2016.KEY (''aloe vera'') AND PUBYEAR > 2006 AND PUBYEAR < 2017 ANALYSIS The total research output of the world in field of Aloe Vera research cumulated to 1988 publications in 10 years during 2007-16.The annual output of the world in Aloe Vera research increased from 135 in the year 2007 to 174 publications in the year 2016, registering 3.91% growth per annum.The cumulative world output in Aloe Vera research in 5 years 2007-11 increased from 837 to 1151 publications during succeeding 5-year period 2012-16, registering 37.51% quinquennial growth.Of

Table 2 .
The top 12 most productive countries in Aloe Vera research accounted for 79.18% global publication share and 84.94% citation share during 2007-16.
-16.Seven of top 12 countries scored relative citation index above the world average of 1: U.K. (1.82), Thailand and USA (1.63 each), Spain (1.23), Pakistan and China (1.15 each) and Italy (1.12) during 2007-16.India has though emerged as the world leader in Aloe Vera research, its performance in terms of relative citation index has below the world average (0.85).

Table 3 .
Profile of Top 16 Most Productive Global Organizations to 103.41) and engineering (from 62.15 to 127.52), as against decline of research activity in medicine (from 106.34 to 95.39), pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics (from 100.58 to 99.58), agricultural and biological sciences (from 108.15to 94.07) and immunology and microbiology (from 113.01 to 90.54) from 2007-11 to 2012-16.Chemistry, among various subjects registered the highest citations impact per paper of 13.99 CPP, followed by medicine (11.79), biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (11.33), immunology and microbiology (8.40), pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics (8.29), agricultural and biological sciences (7.69) and engineering (6.48) during 2007-16 The productivity of top 16 most productive global organizations In Aloe Vera Research varied from 10 to 33 publications and together they contributed 11.47% (228) publication share and 12.87% (2448) citation share during 2007-16.The scientometric profile of these top 16 organizations is presented in Table 4. Four of these organizations registered publications output greater than the group average of 14.25: Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran (33 papers), Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran (25 papers), Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India (21 papers) and Chula long University, Thailand (18 papers) during 2007-16.Nine organizations registered impact above the contributed international collaborative publications share above the group average of 17.54%: National University of Singapore (81.82%),Universidad de La Serena, Chile (50.0%),University of Tehran, Iran and UNESP-Universidade Estadual Pasilista, Brazil (40.0%each), Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India (19.05%),North West University, South Africa and Mashhad University of Medical Science, Iran (18.18% each) during 2007-16.Nine organizations registered the

TC=Total Citations; CPP=Citations Per Paper; HI=h-index; ICP=International Collaborative Papers; RCI=Relative Citation IndexTable 6 : Top 15 Most Productive Journals in Aloe Vera Research during 2007-16. S.No Name of the Journal Number of Papers 2007-11 2012-16 2007-16
dominate more in quality of research.For example, India, Iran, China, South Korea, Thailand, and Pakistan from Asia together accounted for 52.57% global share and comparatively the USA, the U.K., Brazil, Italy and Spain for 23.79% during 2007-16.In terms of quality of research, the USA, the U.K., Brazil, Italy and Spain performed better on citation impact (averaging 13.7 citations per paper) than that of India, Iran, China, South Korea, Thailand, and Pakistan (averaging 5.79 citations per paper).National share of western countries accounting for international collaborative publications in Aloe Vera research was greater (15.58% to 52.17% national share) compared to that of Asian countries (8.02% to 23.91% national share).Medicine was the most sought after subject area of Aloe Vera research, accounting for (40.90%) the highest publications share, followed by pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics (35.16%), agricultural and biological sciences (23.09%), biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (20.27%), chemistry (7.90%), immunology and microbiology (6.24%) and engineering(5.38)during2007-16.The top 20 most productive research organizations and the authors on Aloe Vera research collectively contributed 11.47% and 8.55% global publication share and 12.87% and13.82%globalcitation share respectively during 2007-16.The journals medium accounted for 79.08% global share in Aloe Vera research with top 15 most productive journals accounting for 16.01% of total publications output in journals during 2007-16.These journals are Journal of Ethno-pharmacology (58), followed by International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science (38 papers), International Journal of Pharmaceutical Science Review and Research (29 papers), International Journal of Pharma and Bio Sciences (24 papers), etc. during 2007-16.Of the total global Aloe Vera research output (1988), only 18 papers registered high citations, between 104 to 242 citations per paper.These 18 highly cited papers collectively cumulated a total of 2656 citation (averaging to 147.55 citations per paper), and involved the participation of 26 authors and 27 organizations in their publication.Conclusively, this research study reveals that Asian countries (India, Iran, China, South Korea, Thailand and Pakistan) dominate in Aloe Vera research more in terms of quantity of research, whereas western countries (the USA, the UK, Italy, Brazil and Spain) dominate instead more in terms of quality of research.For enabling Asian counties to perform better in terms of quality of research, it is desirable that the stakeholders from Asian countries may give priority to Aloe Vera research, and encourage leading academic and research organizations from the Asia for international collaboration with counterparts from western countries.