cultivation. Areas having high rainfall, humidity and poor drainage are not suitable. Light or
medium loamy soils with adequate drainage and pH varying from 7.0-8.2 are preferable. In
South India both summer and winter crops are possible. The plant is propagated by seeds.
The seed rate required is 15-20kg/ha. Seeds are sown in October-November (winter rainfed
crop) or in February-March (irrigated crop). Higher seed rate is required for unirrigated
crop. Seeds are sown in lines 30cm apart. Application of 5-10t of FYM/ha before planting
or raising a green manure crop is beneficial. About 40kg N and 25-50kg P 2 O 5 /ha applied as
basal dressing and 40kg N/ha applied in 2 split dozes as top dressing gave better yield.
While the rainfed crop is grown without irrigation, the irrigated crop requires 5-8 light
irrigations during the entire growing season. The crop requires 2-3 weedings and hoeings in
order to keep it free from weeds. Alternaria alternata causes leaf spot and dieback but the
disease is not serious. In North India, the plant is attacked by the larvae of butterfly
Catopsilia pyranthe which can be controlled by planting the crop in March-April instead of
June-July. Under irrigated conditions, the first crop is obtained after 90 days of planting. The
leaves are stripped by hand when they are fully green, thick and bluish-green in colour. The
second crop is taken 4 weeks after the first harvest and the third 4-6 weeks after the second
one. The last harvest of leaves is done when the entire crop is harvested along with the pods.
Yield under irrigated conditions is nearly1.4t of leaves and 150kg pods/ha and under
unirrigated conditions is 500-600kg leaves and 80-100kg pods/ha. The leaves are dried in
thin layers under shade so as to retain the green colour and the pods are hung for 10-12 days
to get dried. The leaves and pods are cleaned, graded and marketed (Husain et al, 1993).
Properties and Activity
Leaves contain glucose, fructose, sucrose and pinnitol. Mucilage consists of
galactose, arabinose, rhamnose and galacturonic acid. Leaves also contain sennoside-C(8,8’-
diglucoside of rhein-aloe-emodin-dianthrone). Pods contain sennosides A and B, glycoside
of anthraquinones rhein and chrysophanic acid. Seeds contain β-sitosterol (Husain et al,
1992). Leaves and pods also contain 0.33% β-sterol and flavonols-kaempferol, kaempferin,
and iso-rhamnetin. Sennoside content of C. acutifolia is higher ranging from 2.5% to 4.5% as
compared to C. angustifolia ranging from 1.5 % to 2.5%.
The purgative activity of Senna is attributed to its sennosides. The pods cause lesser
griping than the leaves. Leaf and pod is laxative. The leaves are astringent, bitter, sweet,
acrid, thermogenic, cathartic, depurative, liver tonic, anthelmintic, cholagogue, expectorant
and febrifuge.