This section of the book is from "The Complete Herbalist" by Dr. O. Phelps Brown. Also available from Amazon: The Complete Herbalist: The People Their Own Physicians By The Use Of Nature's Remedies.
COMMON NAMEES. American Senna, Wild Senna.
MEDICINAL PART. The leaves.
Description. -- This is a perennial herb,
growing from four to six feet high, with round, smooth, and slightly hairy
stems. The leaves have long petioles, ovate at base; each petiole
has eight or ten leaflets, which are oblong, smooth, mucronate, an inch
or two long, and quite narrow. The flowers are bright yellow, and
the fruit is a legume from two to four inches long.
History. -- The American Senna is to be found
from New England to Carolina, growing in rich soils here and there.
It flowers from June to September, and the leaves are gathered, for their
medicinal virtues, while the plant is in bloom. They yield their
virtues to alcohol or water.
Properties and Uses. -- It is one of the
most important herbal cathartics furnished by America, and is mentioned
here solely on the gound that it is equally valuable as the foreign Senna,
or ordinary Senna of the drug-shope, and costs much less. The analysis
of the leaves shows that they contain albumen, mucilage, starch, yellow
coloring matter, volatile oil, fatty matter, resin, lignin, and salts of
potassa, and lime.
Dose. -- Of the powder, from a half-drachm
to two and a half drachms; infusion, four or five ounces.
 
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