Bekri Melka Abdo
Senna alexandrina leaves and pods have been used in herbal medicine since ancient times. The pods and leaves extracts of this plant contains anthraquinone glycosides that have a significant laxative effect. In this study the leaf, pod and flowers of Senna alexandrina were collected from potential areas of Ethiopia and determined their sennoside content (hydroxyanthracene glycosides) calculated as sennoside B via spectrophotometric method. Medicinal Herbal tea preparation also standardized based on sennoside concentration. As a summary, the yields of total sennoside being to be appeared 1.08-1.76% in the leaf, 1.43-2.62% in the pod and 0.08-0.15% in the flower parts of Senna alexandrina, mill located at different areas of Ethiopia with two types of Var. For herbal tea consumption, decoction of 1.5 mg powder of senna in 300 mL water for 10 minutes (pod) and 30 minutes (leaf) were optimized for sennoside extract and Standardized according to the WHO monographs of daily intake of sennosides, twice a day for pod and once a day for leaf herbal tea.
