INTRODUCTION

Sennosides are hydroxyanthracene glycosides derived from Senna leaves. They have been used as natural, safe time-tested laxatives in traditional as well as modern systems of medicine.

Available in various convenient dosage forms they can be used to relieve occasional as well as habitual constipation

C. angustifolia or Tinnevelly Senna, Senna Indica, C. elongata is an annual growing in the Yemen and Hadramaut provinces of Arabia Felix, in Somaliland, Mozambique, Sind, and the Punjab. In Southern India it is cultivated and grows to a larger size. In the German and Swiss Pharmacopoeias, the official drug is restricted to Tinnevelly Senna, and also in the British Pharmacopoeia and the Pharmacopoeia of India. Senna Indica also includes the variety known as Arabian, Mocha, Bombay, or East Indian Senna. Both varieties, as well as Alexandrian Senna, C. acutifolia, are official in the United States Pharmacopoeia.

There is a certain difference in the qualities and also in the names of the species imported into Britain and America. The fine Tinnevelly Senna goes from Madras or Tuticorin to Britain. The leaflets are unbroken, from 1 to 2 or more inches long, thin, flexible, and green.