English: The image is a photomicrograph of the lower epidermis of Aloe vera, viewed under brightfield illumination at 600X magnification. In an attempt to find alternative stains which are less toxic than conventional ones, a stain was prepared by first making a curcumin tincture from turmeric powder, and mixing it with an iodine tincture. The cytoplasms are stained yellow, the nuclei are stained brighter yellow, and the cell wall and guard cells are brown/ochre. The image was taken using an Olympus OIC student compound monocular microscope; the model was designed in the 1950s.