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Senna
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Project Information Profile @ a Glance | |
| Senna (Cassia angustifolia) is a
small shrub that grows in regions of the upper Nile of North Africa and
Arabia. Today senna is a commonly used laxative and is found as an active ingredient in products such as Senokot, Fletcher's Castoria, and Ex-Lax Gentle Nature. Senna can be found growing naturally in most tropical regions of the world. Both its leaves and its seeds are medicinal. Senna is able to relieve constipation by stimulating the colon, whereby speeding along the passage of the contents. Commercial Senna is prepared for use by garbling, or picking out the leaflets and rejecting the lead-stalks, impurities, and leaves of other plants. The amount annually exported is about 8,000 bales of each of the varieties, and the price is high, owing to the failure of the crops at certain seasons. Good Senna may be known by the bright, fresh, yellowishgreen colour of the leaves, with a faint and peculiar odour rather like green tea, and a nauseous, mucilaginous, sweetish, slightly bitter taste. It should be powdered only as wanted, because the powder absorbs moisture, becomes mouldy, and loses its value. Boiling destroys its virtues, unless it be in vacuo, or in a covered vessel. Sennax is the name applied to the watersoluble glucoside of Senna, marketed in tablets containing 0.75 gram each. Senna is taken orally using dosages that include 20 to 60 milligrams of pure senna extract. The strength of commercial preparations may vary, so follow the manufacturer's recommendations found on the packaging. Senna is available as a crushed herb, as a liquid, or as a powdered extract. Senna leaves and pods shall be graded and marked only at such baling presses as can provide proper space and facilities for cleaning, grading and marking and are approved of as such by the Agricultural Marking Adviser. | |
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