Senna alexandrina Mill. (= Cassia acutifolia Delile; Cassia angustifolia M. Vahl)

DeFilipps, Robert A. & Krupnick, Gary A., 2018, The medicinal plants of Myanmar, PhytoKeys 102, pp. 1-341 : 89

Senna alexandrina Mill. (= Cassia acutifolia Delile; Cassia angustifolia M. Vahl)

Names.

Myanmar: pwe-gaing, thinbaw-mezali. English: Alexandrian senna, Arabian senna, Indian senna, tinnevelly senna.

Range.

Egypt, Sudan to Nigeria. Cultivated in India and Myanmar.

Use.

Leaf: Used in treating dull stomach pain, liver disease, dropsy, bile, indigestion, leprosy, coughing with phlegm, and aches and pains in the joints. Taking the leaves with the liquid from boiling dried ginger root will cure indigestion. If the leaves are taken with the juice from zee-hpyu fruit ( Phyllanthus emblica ), it will cure leprosy and edema. One tablespoon of the liquid in which it has been boiled rather strongly can be mixed into a cup of milk and taken in order use as a laxative.

Notes.

The leaflets of this species contain cassic acid or “hein,” an antibiotic substance effective against Staphylococcus aureus ( Perry 1980).

References.

Nordal (1963), Agricultural Corporation (1980).