CASSIA AURICULATA

Common name: Tirunelveli Senna, Egyptian Senna, Tinnevelly Senna, East Indian Senna • Hindi: bhuikhakhasa • Kannada: nelavare, nelavarike, sonamukhi • Malayalam: nilavaka • Marathi: bhitarvada, mulkacha, shonamakhi, सोनमुखी sonamukhi • Sanskrit: bhumiari, bhumichari, भूमिवल्ली bhumivalli • Tamil: alakalam, alakalampokki, alakalampokkicceti • Telugu: nelaponna, nelatangedu • Urdu: sana-e-hind, sana-e-makki

Botanical name: Senna alexandrina   

Family: Caesalpiniaceae (Gulmohar family)

Synonyms: Senna angustifolia, Senna acutifolia, Cassia angustifolia

Geographical distribution:

Introduction: Tirunelveli Senna is a shrubby plant that reaches 0.5-1 m, rarely 2 m in height with a branched, pale-green erect stem and long spreading branches bearing four or five pairs of leaves. These leaves form complex, feathery, mutual pairs. The leaflets vary from 4 to 6 pairs, entire, with a sharp tip. The midribs are equally divided at the base of the leaflets. The flowers are borne in a raceme, and are big in size, coloured yellow that tends to brown. Its pods are horned, broadly oblong, compressed and flat and contain about six seeds. When cultured, the plants are cut down semi-annually, dried in the sun, stripped and packed in palm-leaf bags.  
Species Type: Shrub

Chemical composition:

Leaves of senna contain flavenol and anthraquinone group compounds. In the flavenol group there is present isorhamnetin and kaempfeol. And in the second group it contains rhein and emodin ,it also contains two types of glucosides known as sennoside A and B. Besides these it contains menitol, sodium potassium tartarte, salisilic acid, crisophenic acid, volatile oils, resins and calcium oxalate. In the flowers there is a special type of acid  present known as crisofenic acid.

Medicinal Properties:

Senna is powerful cathartic. It has stimulant, irritating laxative, cooling and anti-bacterial, expectorant, wound dresser, antidysentric, carminative  properties. It is also anthchiintic, antipyretic, vermifuge, diuretic by nature.

Medicinal Uses : Senna is used in treating  constipation, by stimulating intestinal peristalsis. It is useful in  painful hemorrhoids, as it ensures soft and easy bowel movements. Paste of Senna leaves is  applied to various skin diseases like acne, eczema etc It is used as an  anthelmentic since it  expels intestinal worms effectively. It is also used in hypertension and obesity. It is useful in loss of appetite, dysentry, hepatomegaly, spleenomegaly, indigestion, malaria, jaundice, biliousness, gout, rheumatism and anaemia.

Dose  : 0.5-2 g of the drug in powder form.

Important Formulations : Panchasakara churna, Yashtayadi churna

Home remedies:

·   Senna tea  is prepared by pouring hot (but not boiling) water over 1/2 to 2 grams (one-quarter teaspoon) of crushed senna herb, steep for about 10 minutes and strain. Senna tea can also be prepared by steeping crushed senna for 12 hours in cold water and then straining.

·   When constipated, 50 milligrams of a standardized supplement once or twice a day, 1/8 to ½ teaspoon of a liquid leaf extract daily, or 3 to 6 pods steeped in a cup of warm water every 6 to 12 hours. Senna's seedpods possess more constipation-relieving power than its leaves, but leaf formulations are safer. To reduce the likelihood of intestinal pain when taking senna, mix it with ginger, cloves, or mint.