Senna is a drought-tolerant shrub with small yellow flowers and leaflets that form sharp edges, native to tropical areas of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and India that has been used in traditional medicine systems of Asia for centuries.
In Ayurvedic medicine, senna leaf formulations such as tea preparations are used to treat constipation and digestive diseases, according to ABC. Similarly, senna leaf is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat excessive heat associated with constipation and abdominal pain.
According to ABC, its features likely explain the plant’s common name, which comes from the Arabic word Sanaa for ‘thorny bush.’
With its adoption, botanical extracts-specialist K. Patel Phyto Extractions helps ABC expand its nonprofit research and educational mission and keep ABC’s HerbMedPro database updated with the latest scientific and clinical research on these botanical ingredients.
“Through the Adopt-an-Herb initiative we are proud to be a part of maintaining the database about senna and contribute to sharing information and knowledge about senna,” said Viraj Patel, director of business development for K. Patel Phyto Extractions.
“ABC is deeply grateful for the adoption of senna by K. Patel Phyto Extractions,“ said Mark Blumenthal, ABC’s founder and executive director, in a press release.
“Senna is an ancient and classical herbal drug, the medicinal properties of which have been recognized for millennia, including in official pharmacopeial monographs. Even today, senna extracts, and the sennosides found in senna leaf and fruit are approved by various government agencies and pharmacopeias as safe and effective stimulant laxatives.”
Blumenthal added: “The K. Patel adoption of senna on ABC’s powerful HerbMedPro database will ensure that new scientific and clinical research on this classic medicinal plant will be more available to researchers, health professionals, industry members, and other stakeholders in the international medicinal plant community.”