? Senna
Senna sp. inflorescence in Costa Rica
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Fabales Family: Fabaceae Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae Genus: Senna Mill.
Selected species
See text

Senna is a large genus of about 250-260 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, subfamily Caesalpinioideae. The genus is native throughout the tropics, with a small number of species reaching into temperate regions. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (533x800, 259 KB)Senna sp. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms (as opposed to folk taxonomy). ... Divisions Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Marchantiophyta - liverworts Anthocerotophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants Adiantum pedatum (a fern... Classes Magnoliopsida- Dicots Liliopsida- Monocots The flowering plants (also called angiosperms) are a major group of land plants. ... Young castor oil plant showing its prominent two embryonic leaves (cotyledons), that differ from the adult leaves An example of a trimerous and non-eudicot flower: Magnolia Dicotyledons or dicots are a group of flowering plants whose seed typically contains two embryonic leaves or cotyledons. ... Families Fabaceae (legumes) Quillajaceae Polygalaceae (milkwort family) Surianaceae The Fabales are an order of flowering plants, included in the rosid group of dicotyledons. ... Subfamilies Faboideae Caesalpinioideae Mimosoideae References GRIN-CA 2002-09-01 The name Fabaceae belongs to either of two families, depending on viewpoint. ... Tribes Cassieae Caesalpinieae Cercideae Detarieae Caesalpinioideae is a botanical name at the rank of subfamily, placed in the large family Fabaceae or Leguminosae. ... Philip Miller (1691 - 1771) was a botanist of Scottish descent. ... Classes Magnoliopsida- Dicots Liliopsida- Monocots The flowering plants (also called angiosperms) are a major group of land plants. ... Subfamilies Faboideae Caesalpinioideae Mimosoideae References GRIN-CA 2002-09-01 The name Fabaceae belongs to either of two families, depending on viewpoint. ... Tribes Cassieae Caesalpinieae Cercideae Detarieae Caesalpinioideae is a botanical name at the rank of subfamily, placed in the large family Fabaceae or Leguminosae. ...

Typically Senna species have yellow flowers. Some species of Senna are notable for being host to particular butterfly species — for instance Cloudless Sulphur butterflies. Binomial name Phoebis sennae (Linnaeus, 1758) Cloudless Sulphurs are butterflies in the family Pieridae. ...

Selected species

• Senna aculeata
• Senna alata
• Senna alexandrina
• Senna angulata
• Senna armata
• Senna artemisioides
• Senna auriculata
• Senna australis
• Senna bicapsularis
• Senna birostris
• Senna candolleana
• Senna corymbosa
• Senna covesii, (Desert senna, Rattleweed)
• Senna cumingii
• Senna didymobotrya
• Senna fruticosa
• Senna hebecarpa
• Senna helmsii
• Senna hirsuta
• Senna italica
• Senna ligustrina
• Senna lindheimeriana
• Senna macranthera
• Senna marilandica
• Senna multiglandulosa
• Senna multijuga
• Senna nicaraguensis
• Senna nitida
• Senna obtusifolia
• Senna occidentalis
• Senna odorata
• Senna oligophylla
• Senna pallida
• Senna purpusii

SENNA Binomial name Senna covesii (A.Gray) H.S.Irwin & Barneby Senna covesii (Coues Cassia or Desert Senna; syn. ... Binomial name Senna covesii (A.Gray) H.S.Irwin & Barneby Senna covesii (Coues Cassia or Desert Senna; syn. ... Binomial name Senna obtusifolia (L.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby Senna obtusifolia (syn. ...

Botanical Name: Cassia senna L. (Although Cassia acutifolia Delile and Cassia angustifolia Vahl are recognized as two distinct species in a number of pharmacopoeias as Alexandrian senna and Tinnevelly senna. Botanically, however, they are considered to be synonyms of the single species Cassia senna L.)

Common Name: Senna, Alexandrian or Khartoum senna, Tinnevelly senna.

Habitat: Senna is a shrub native to North Africa, India, Pakistan and China and is quite exotic to Nepal. (One of the species of Senna found in Nepal is Cassia fistula (Raj-brikchya)

History: Senna appears to have been used since the ninth or tenth century, its introduction into medicine being due to the Arabian physicians, who used both the leaves and the pods. It was formerly exported through Alexandria, from where the name of the Sudanese drug is derived.

Botany: • Plant Part Used: Dried leaflets (Folium Sennae), Pods (Fructus Sennae).

• Macroscopical Characters:

Folium Sennae: Senna leaflets bear stout petioles. The lamina has an entire margin, an acute apex, and a more or less asymmetric base. The surfaces are pubescent. Odor, slight but characteristic; taste, mucilaginous, bitterish and unpleasant.

Fructus Sennae: It is leaf like, has flat and think pods, yellowish green to yellowish brown with a dark brown central area, oblong or reniform. Fruit is pale to grayish green with stylar point at one end, containing 6-10 obovate green to pale brown seeds with longitudinal prominent ridges on the testa.

• Microscopical Characters:

Folium Sennae: Senna leaflets have an isobilateral structure. The epidermal cells have straight walls, and many contain mucilage. Both surfaces bear scattered, unicellular, nonlignified warty hairs. Paracytic stomata on both surfaces are present. The mesophyll contains cluster crystals. The midrib is biconvex. Below the midrib bundle is a zone of collenchymas. The midrib bundle and larger veins are almost surrounded by a zone of lignified pericyclic fibers and a sheath of parenchymatous cells containing prisms of calcium oxalate.

Fructus Sennae: Epicarp with very thick cuticularized isodiametrical cells, occasional Anomocytic or Paracytic stomata, and very few unicellular and warty trichomes; hypodermis with collenchymatous cells; mesocarp with parenchymatous tissue containing a layer of calcium oxalate prisms; endocarp consisting of thick walled fibre. Seeds, subepidermal layer of palisade cells with thick outer walls; the endosperm has polyhedral cells with mucilaginous walls.

• Constituents: Senna contains a family of hydroxyanthrancene glycosides, the most plentiful of which are sennosides A and B. There are also anthraquinone derivatives and their glucosides which are responsible for its purgative effects. There are also small amounts of aloe-emodin and rhein 8-glucosides, mucilage, flavonoids, and naphthalene precursors.

Cultivation: Senna is usually found in wild, but they have been extensively cultivated recently. It may be grown either on dry land or in wetter conditions as successor to rice.

Collection: Alexandrian Senna is collected mainly in September from both wild and cultivated plants. The branches bearing leaves and pods are dried in the sun and conveyed to Omdurman. Here the pods and large stalks are first separated by means of sieves. That which has passed through the sieves is then tossed in shallow trays, the leaves working to the surface and heavier stalk fragments and sand to the bottom. The leaves are then graded partly by means of sieves and partly by hand picking into (1) whole leaves,(2) whole leaves and half leaves mixed and (3) siftings. The whole leaves are those usually sold to the public, while the other grades are used for making galenicals. The drug is packed somewhat loosely, in bales and sent.

Tinnevelly senna is obtained from cultivated plants of Cassia angustifolia grown in South India, N.W Pakistan and Jammu, where the plants are more luxuriant than those found in wild in Arabia. 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, yellowish green color of the leaves, with a faint and peculiar odor 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 moldy, and loses its value. Boiling destroys its virtues, unless it is in vacuo, or in a covered vessel.

The pods are collected with the leaves and dried as described above. After separation from the leaves they are hand picked into various qualities, the finer being sold in cartons and the inferior ones used for making galenicals.

General Identity Tests: Macroscopic, microscopic and microchemical examinations, and thin-layer chromatographic analysis for the presence of characteristic sennosides (sennosides A-D).

Quality Control:

i. Microbiology: The test for Salmonella spp. in both Fructus and Folium Sennae products should be negative. The maximum acceptable limits of other microorganisms are as follows: For preparation of decoction: aerobic bacteria - 107/g; moulds and yeast – 105/g; Escherichia coli- 102/g; other enterobacteria-104/g. Preparations for internal use; aerobic bacteria- 105/g or ml; moulds and yeast -104/g or ml; Escherichia coli -0/g; other enterobacteria -103/g or ml.

ii. Foreign organic matter: For Fructus Sennae, not more than 1.0%; For Folium Sennae , not more than 2.0% of stems and not more than 1.0% of other foreign organic matter.

iii. Total ash: For Fructus Sennae, not more than 6%; For Folium Sennae, not more than 12%.

iv. Acid-insoluble ash: For Fructus Sennae, not more than 2.0%; For Folium Sennae, not more than 2.0%.

v. Water-soluble extractive: For Fructus Sennae, not more than 25%; For Folium Sennae, not more than 3%.

vi. Moisture: For Fructus Sennae, not more than 12%; For Folium Sennae, not more than 10%

vii. Heavy Metals: Recommended lead and cadmium levels are not more than 10 and 0.3mg/kg, respectively, in the final dosage form of the plant material.

Chemical Assays:

• Folium Sennae: Contains not less than 2.5% of hydroxyanthracene glycosides, calculated as sennoside B. Quantitative analysis is performed by spectrophotometry and by high-performance liquid chromatography. Thin-layer chromatography is employed for qualitative analysis for the presence of Sennosides A and B.

• Fructus Sennae: Contains not less than 2.2% of hydroxyanthracene glycosides, calculated as sennoside B. Quantitative analysis is performed by spectrophotometry and by high-performance liquid chromatography. Thin-layer chromatography is employed for qualitative analysis for the presence of Sennosides A and B.

Trade: India is the world's largest producer and exporter of senna leaves and pods, exporting about 5,000 to 7,000 tonnes of leaves and pods annually, mainly to Germany, US, Japan, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and the UK. About 700 to 800 tonnes of senna leaves and pods of Alexandrian senna are exploited annually in Sudan (Husain, 1991). The leaves and pods contain a glycoside, used mostly as laxatives all over the world. Based on 1992 import statistics, the average prices of senna leaves and pods at North European ports were as follows (ITC, 1993c):

Indian Senna pods - 1,600 US$/tonne Indian Senna leaves - 800-1000 US$/tonne Sudanese Senna Pods -1,200 US$/Tonne Sudanese Senna Pods - 600-800 US$/Tonne

Medicinal Uses:

i. Uses supported by clinical data: Short-term use in occasional constipation. ii. Uses described in pharmacopoeias and in traditional systems of medicine: None. iii. Uses described in folk medicine, not supported by experimental or clinical data: As an expectorant, a wound dressing, an antidysentric, and a carminative agent; and for the treatment of gonorrhea, skin diseases, dyspepsia, fever and hemorrhoids

Dosage Forms: Crude plant material, powder, oral infusion, and extracts (liquid or solid, standardized for content of sennosides A and B). Package in well closed containers protected from light and moisture.

Dosages

 Powdered leaves, 1 drachm. Conct. solution, B.P., 1/2 to 1 drachm. Of compound or aromatic syrup, 2 fluid drachms. Of U.S.P. syrup, for an adult, 1 to 4 fluid drachms. Of B.P. syrup, 1 to 2 fluid drachms. Of Senna, 1/2 to 2 drachms. Of eompound mixture, B.P., 4 to 16 drachms. Of infusion, B.P., 1/2 to 2 fluid ounces. Of fluid extract, for an adult, 1/2 to 2 fluid drachms. 

<== External Information ==>

• US Agriculture Dept. - PLANTS Database - Senna
• Connecticut Botanical Society - American Senna