ADULTERATION OP SENNA. 
323 
ART. LVTI. — ON THE ADULTERATION OF SENNA. 
By Jacob Bell. 
Although it is well known that the leaves of Alexandrian 
senna are invariably mixed with a certain proportion of the 
cynanchum arguel, no decisive measures have yet been adopt- 
ed to put an end to this fraud ; other leaves are occasionally 
found in it, but the above is the adulteration which chiefly 
demands our attention, from the circumstance that it is sys- 
tematically practised to so great an extent as to affect materi- 
ally the quality of the drug. Alexandrian senna contains a 
mixture of two or more species of true senna. It consists 
principally of the cassia lanceolata, with a few leaflets of cas- 
sia obovata and cassia obtusata, and, according to some au- 
thorities, it sometimes contains cassia acutifolia. This mix- 
ture is unimportant, but the cynanchum, which generally con- 
stitutes a fifth of the weight on an average, possesses proper- 
ties differing in some respects from true senna, and which 
render it particularly objectionable. 
Dr. Christison has paid considerable attention to this sub- 
ject; and in order to test the quality of the cynanchum, he 
administered it to several patients, prepared in the same man- 
ner as the senna which he was in the habit of prescribing. 
He found that it produced much griping, flatulence, and un- 
easiness, with a very scanty purgative effect, and he attri- 
butes the unpleasant effects and nauseous taste frequently 
ascribed to senna, to the leaves of cynanchum contained in it 
It is chiefly on this account that the Alexandrian senna is sel- 
dom used in Edinburgh, the Tinnivelly senna having almost 
entirely taken its place. 
Dr. Christison mentions a case in which a patient, who had 
been in the habit of taking a syrup of Tinnivelly senna, be- 
ing supplied with the same preparation in which the Alexan- 
drian had been substituted, was extremely annoyed at the 
VOL. VIII.— NO. iv. 41 
