Senna tora (L.) Roxb. (= Cassia tora L.)

DeFilipps, Robert A. & Krupnick, Gary A., 2018, The medicinal plants of Myanmar, PhytoKeys 102, pp. 1-341 : 90-91

Senna tora (L.) Roxb. (= Cassia tora L.)

Names.

Myanmar: dangywe, dant-kywei, dinghkri, myay-pe-naw-nam, ngusat. English: metal seed, sicklepod.

Range.

West Indies, Central and South America, and parts of North America. In Myanmar, found in Kachin, Mandalay, Sagaing, and Yangon.

Uses.

Leaf: Used as a laxative and vermifuge.

Notes.

In India the leaf is used for skin diseases, as a laxative (decoction), on cuts, for eczema (paste) and bone fracture (leaves pounded with egg albumen, and applied as plaster), as a vermicide (infusion), and for indigestion (powder); also, young leaves are eaten to prevent skin disease; the seed is used for skin diseases, ringworm, and for eczema ( Jain and DeFilipps 1991). In China old leaves are used for ringworm; the fruit is used for dysentery, opthalmia, several eye ailments (cataracts, conjunctivitis, glaucoma), headache, hepatitis, herpes, furnunculoid sores, and arthritis. The seeds are used for boils, and as an external and internal medicine for eye diseases ( Duke and Ayensu 1985).

The species contains aloe-emodin (antitumor), aurantio obtusin, chrysophanol, emodin, obtusin, physcion, rhein, rubrofusarin, torachryon, toralactone. Also, due to unnamed glycosides, aqueous and ethanol seed extracts possess hypotensive and bradycardiac actions ( Duke and Ayensu 1985).

References.

Nordal (1963), Perry (1980).