328 Extracts from the Journals. [Oct. 



SENXA. 



BY X. LANDERER. 



The senna plant is chiefly indigenous in Ethiopia, Arabia Fe- 

 lix, Abyssinia, Xubia, and Senaar. The Arab tribes who occupy 

 themselves with this branch of commerce pay not the slightest 

 attention to the cultivation or manaorement of the plants. Tha 

 senna plant attains the height of eight or ten feet, and afiords 

 some protection from the heat of the sun to the inhabitants of the 

 desert and to the caravans. The harvest of senna begins about 

 the end of September. The Arabs then cut nearly all the 

 branches off the tree, leaving the stems bare, and allow them to 

 lie exposed until the leaves becrin to fade. The branches are now 

 collected in bundles and exposed on high ground or rocks that the 

 air and sun may dr^" them as quickly as possible. When the 

 leaves are dry the branches are laid in heaps and beaten with 

 sticks to shake the leaves off. The leaves obtained by this pro- 

 cess are not damaged, and consequently fetch the highest price, 

 amountino^ to about double the sum given in the bazaars for the 

 broken senna. As all the leaves are not separated from the twigs 

 by this process, the branches are, in some parts of Nubia, placed 

 on a clay floor and camels are driven over them to effect the total 

 separation of the leaves, which are by these means broken into 

 pieces and found mixed with small portions of the twigs. 



Another variety" of senna, characterized by the large size of 

 the leaves and their green color, is brought from the interior of 

 Africa. It is sold at a high price by the name of Mekka senna. 



The senna {sinamiki) collected in various parts of Africa, is 

 packed in Imen sacks on camels and conveyed by camels to the 

 shores of the Nile, where it is transferred to the boats, and thus 

 brought to Cairo and Alexandria. In these two capitals there 

 are sinamiki magazines, to which the bales are conveyed to be 

 unpacked and again carefully sorted. 



Within the last two years the senna trade has been thrown 

 open, but it has latterly again become a government monopoly. 

 The refuse and dust generated by the sorting of the leaves is not 

 met with in the European markets, as it is kept for home con- 

 sumption. An intentional adulterationof senna with other leaves 

 in their native country' is out of the question, for the slightest 

 adulteration is there punished as a capital crime. The small pods, 

 which are rarely found mixed with the leaves because they are 

 carefully picked out, are in ver>' general use in the countries 

 where the senna grows. In the bazaars of Constantinople and 

 Smvrna two varieties are met with — an Egyptian and a Tripo- 

 litan variety. — Pharm. Journ. from Rep.fur die. Pharm. 



