CASSIA TORA

Common name: Stinking Cassia, Chinese senna, foetid cassia, Java bean, low senna, peanut weed, sickle senna, sicklepod • Assamese: Bon medelua, Dari diga, Medeluwa • Bengali: Panevar, Chakunda • Hindi: Panwar, Chakunda, Chakvat • Kannada: Sogata • Malayalam: Sakramardakam • Manipuri: থৌনম নমথীবী Thaunum namthibi • Marathi: Takla, Tankala • Mizo: Kelbe-on • Oriya: chakunda • Tamil: சேநாவு Senavu • Urdu: Panwar, Panevar, Tarota

Botanical name: Cassia tora

Family: Caesalpiniaceae (Gulmohar family)

Synonyms: Senna tora 

Introduction: Stinking Cassia is a small erect hair lesss shrub, about 1 m tall, commonly found growing wild on roadsides. True to its name, foetid/stinking cassia has a disagreeable smell. It is widely spreading with numerous ascending, hairless branches. The compound leaves are arranged spirally and usually have three pairs of symmetrically egg-shaped leaflets up to 2 inches long. One to three yellow flowers appear on short axillary stems. The linear pods grow to 8 inches long, curve downward and contain many shiny, angular seeds. It occurs abundantly in open pastures, and is very common on roadsides and wasteland. 

Chemical composition: The seeds of Cassia tora contain a variety of bioactive anthraquinones (AQs) substances, including chrysophanol, emodin, rhein,  Which mainly responsible for pharmacological action ascribed to them. Reported that AQs aglycons from Cassia tora exhibited inhibitory effect against aflatoxin B1 in the Ames test. Several reports shown that AQs can act as an antimutagens, which suppress the mutagenicity of mycotoxins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and HCAs.

Medicinal uses:  According to Ayurveda, the leaves and seeds are useful in leprosy, ringworm, flatulence, colic, dyspepsia, constipation, cough, bronchitis, cardiac disorders.

In organic farms of India, Stinking Cassia is used as natural pesticide. 

Species Type : Shrub