Plants have been used for disease treatment and health care since ancient times. Despite a setback in the middle 19th century, medicinal plants still form the basis of traditional or indigenous health systems. Herbs whether being used by a Siddha practitioner in South India, to isolate a new alkaloid in a research lab in Switzerland,…
Senna is one of the most traded raw materials in the supplement market. India is the main producer of senna in the world and exports senna leaves and pods worth more then Rs 6 million annually. It is grown on 8,000–10,000 hectares and three-fourths of senna produced in India is exported. Prior to World War…
Man has been troubled by constipation for more than 7,000 years ever since the switchover from feeding on fruits, roots, vegetables and grains to a wide variety of meat products happened. Constipation is of even greater concern world over today due to the shedding of traditional diets what with the convenience granted by fast foods…
The active constituents in both senna leaf and pod are dianthrone glycosides, principally sennoside A and B. They are di-O-glucosides of rhein dianthrone (Sennidin A and B) and liberate upon hydrolysis two molecules of glucose and the aglycones sennidin A and B. Minor constituents include sennosides C and D, which are glycosides of heterodianthrones involving…
Senna plants are low-branching erect shrubs. Leaflets and pods are collected from cultivated plants of C. angustifolia and from both wild and cultivated plants of C. acutifolia. The branches are collected when the fruits are fully formed (but still unripe) and they are rapidly dried in the sun. Leaves are cleaned, sieved to remove leaf fragments and compressed…
Other purgative drugs of erstwhile importance such as aloes, cascara and rhubarb are no longer prescribed as purgatives because of their drastic mode of action and the severe griping that follows. Gums such as acacia, tragacanth, guar gum and sterculia as also other polysaccharide drugs are used as laxatives to a limited extent due their…
Of the various plant-based laxative drugs available on the market, Senna (Cassia angustifolia and C. acutifolia, Family Caesalpinae) and Ispaghula (P. ovata, P. psyllium, Family Plantaginaceae) appear to the most widely used plant laxatives others being aloes, cascara, rhubarb along with agar and gums – acacia, tragacanth, sterculia and guar gum. Commercial Importance Chronic constipation is one of the…
Commercial cultivation of Duboisia species in Australia and of H. muticus in Egypt constitute the basis for supply of the global demand for tropane alkaloids. Also to a limited extent, H. niger is cultivated in the United States, UK and India. Indigenous to Western Europe and temperate forests of India, A. belladonna is cultivated in UK, Germany, former USSR, the United States and…
Several of the solanaceous plants used as sources of tropane alkaloids were well known for their poisonous nature and were also used medicinally. They have been included in the pharmacoepias and have been under cultivation in their source countries. A. belladonna is a tall perennial herb, commonly referred to as Deadly Nightshade; it was introduced into…
Out of 72 genera of the family Solanaceae, only eight genera namely Atropa, Hysocyamus, Scopolia, Mandrogora, Physochlaina, Datura, Solandra and Duboisia contain atropine, hyoscyamine and hysocine. The species under these genera can be classified into three categories: Table 3.4 Important plant sources of tropane alkaloids L leaves, FT flowering tops, R root, S stem, Sd seeds.