In the instructions for medications, this medicinal plant can be hidden under completely different names. Leaf of Alexandria, cassia narrow-leaved or holly, African senna, Egyptian or Meccan. Know that all these are names of the same tropical shrub. Leaves, seeds and fruits are actively used in Eastern folk medicine to treat many diseases. Today, it is widely used for weight loss, as it has a powerful laxative and diuretic effect.
Contraindications
- hypersensitivity to biologically active substances of the drug;
- metrorrhagia, paralytic intestinal obstruction, hemorrhoids, acute inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, appendicitis), peritonitis, gastric and duodenal ulcers, gastrointestinal bleeding, rectal fissures, spastic colitis, strangulated hernia, pancreatitis, hepatitis, nephritis, cystitis, abdominal pain of unknown origin, severe water and electrolyte imbalance, nausea, vomiting, diverticulitis, organic liver damage.
Complex of senna, fennel and apricot extracts tablets 500 mg 30 pcs. in Moscow
“Complex of senna, fennel and apricot extracts” is intended to support the active functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. It has been established that gastrointestinal motility can slow down not only due to various diseases or after taking certain medications, but also for other reasons. The most common of them:
- poor nutrition (lack of dietary fiber);
- insufficient fluid intake (especially water, juices or broths);
- sedentary lifestyle, sedentary work, physical inactivity;
- emotional or physical stress;
- depression;
- frequent business trips, travel, change of residence.
“Complex of senna, fennel and apricot extracts” will be useful for those in whose life any of the listed factors occur. After all, the slow functioning of the intestines causes discomfort not only physical, but also psychological. And taking a herbal complex that gently stimulates the gastrointestinal tract will help maintain your usual lightness and activity.
Senna extract
Senna is one of the most popular remedies for improving bowel function. The effectiveness of senna has been proven by more than a century of experience in its use in medicine. The active ingredients of senna are sennosides or anthraquinones. They cause liquefaction of the intestinal contents, enhance its motor function and accelerate bowel movements. Senna usually begins to act 6-10 hours after administration.
The use of sennosides is not associated with a significant risk of toxic effects, so they can be taken in small quantities for several weeks.
Fennel extract
Fennel extract stimulates the production of gastric juice and enhances motility, thereby accelerating the evacuation of intestinal contents. The active substances contained in fennel prevent the accumulation of gases and promote their removal, which leads to the return of the intestines to a more comfortable state. It is important that fennel has a slight choleretic effect, and as you know, bile salts are a natural laxative and are necessary for the normal functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.
Dried apricot juice
Apricot juice contains dietary fiber of pectin nature. They are a natural sorbent that captures toxins and stimulates the digestive tract. In addition, apricot juice suppresses the growth of putrefactive intestinal microflora, which improves digestion and reduces gas formation.
Helpful advice: while taking the Senna, Fennel and Apricot Extract Complex, try to drink more water, juices and broths, especially in the first half of the day, as they are necessary for the normal functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. But alcohol, tea and other drinks containing caffeine do not improve digestion.
Mode of application
Place 1.5-2 teaspoons of cut-pressed leaves and fruits in an enamel bowl, pour in 200 ml of hot boiled water, close the lid and leave in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes. Leave at room temperature until completely cooled, strain, and squeeze the remainder into the resulting decoction. Bring the volume of the decoction to 200 ml with boiled water. Adults take ⅓-½ glass warm at night or one tablespoon 1-3 times a day. Children over 12 years old - from 1-2 tablespoons to ¼ cup at night.
The duration of treatment is determined by the doctor individually for each patient. It is recommended to shake the infusion before use.
Effect on the body
You should not hope that losing weight with senna will relieve you of fat reserves on your sides, stomach and other problem areas. All it will do is thoroughly cleanse the intestines, liver, and the body as a whole from waste, toxins, free radicals, radionuclides, and fluid stagnant in the tissues. Thanks to this, in the first few days of active use of drugs and decoctions based on this herb, you will lose up to 5 kg. However, this is where healthy weight loss ends.
After the harmful substances are gone and the laxative effect continues to act, healthy cells and tissues of the body will be consumed. The plant will begin to release beneficial vitamins and microelements. It is possible to lose another 3-4 kg, but at the expense of your health, because the processes of dehydration and exhaustion will start. That is why this herb is criticized by doctors and nutritionists.
If you need to lose 3-4 kg within 5-7 days, you can drink drugs and decoctions from senna without fanaticism. But keep in mind that your fat on your tummy and buttocks will not go away. For total weight loss, it is better to choose some other method that is safer for your health.
Senna seeds, fruits and leaves are used to prepare pharmaceutical preparations and homemade drinks. They contain glycosides, organic acids, flavonoids, alkaloids and resins. This chemical composition determines the medicinal properties of the herb. Make no mistake: none of them burn fat or block hunger. On the contrary, numerous experiments have shown that this plant stimulates and does not reduce appetite.
Business card. Experts do not recommend actively using senna for weight loss also because for us it is an exotic plant. Its habitat is Asia, Africa, India, Sudan, Somalia, and the Arabian Peninsula.
Note!
The description of the drug Senna leaves and fruits 100g on this page is a simplified author’s version of the apteka911 website, created on the basis of the instructions for use.
Before purchasing or using the drug, you should consult your doctor and read the manufacturer's original instructions (attached to each package of the drug). Information about the drug is provided for informational purposes only and should not be used as a guide to self-medication. Only a doctor can decide to prescribe the drug, as well as determine the dose and methods of its use.
Side effects
As numerous studies have shown that senna has been incessantly subjected to recently, regular use of drugs and drinks based on it ends not only in weight loss, but also in a host of side effects. If the dosages are minimal and the duration of the course does not exceed a week, there is a chance that you will not encounter these complications. Still, it is better to be prepared for such a turn of events.
Among the troubles that can await you on this thorny path to weight loss:
- itching and urticaria - this is how an allergic reaction to anthraquinones (glycosides) contained in senna in huge quantities most often manifests itself;
- severe diarrhea, which can result in anal fissures, inflammation of the anus or dehydration;
- severe pain, cramps, colic in the abdomen;
- a malfunction of the organs of the excretory system, which will not have time to remove everything that senna so carefully filters out in the body - as a result, problems with the kidneys and gall bladder cannot be avoided;
- digestive disorders, and here the clinical picture can be very diverse: from bloating and flatulence to nausea and vomiting;
- dehydration;
- exhaustion;
- headaches and dizziness;
- arrhythmia and seizures;
- confusion;
- loss of potassium, which can negatively affect the condition of the cardiovascular system;
- damage to the intestinal myenteric plexus.
If you experience any of these side effects from losing weight with senna, you should stop immediately. The further development of each of these symptoms is fraught with health complications, which will subsequently have to be addressed with medication.
Peculiarity. Another side effect that scares many is brown urine. However, of all the consequences, it is the most harmless to health.
AUTHENTICITY
External signs
Whole raw materials. Individual leaves and petioles of a compound pinnate leaf, whole or partially crushed; pieces of thin herbaceous stems; buds; flowers and unripe fruits. The leaves are elongated-lanceolate (Cassia angustifolia) or lanceolate-oval (Cassia acutifolia), pointed towards the apex, widest in the middle part, unequal at the base, thin, brittle, entire, with a very short petiole. Secondary veins, clearly visible on both sides, extend at an acute angle from the main vein and are connected to each other by arches running parallel to the edge of the leaflet. Leaflet length 1 – 6 cm (2 – 6 cm in Cassia angustifolia and 1 – 3.5 cm in Cassia acutifolia), width 0.4 – 2 cm (0.6 – 2 cm in Cassia angustifolia and 0.4 – 1. 2 cm in Cassia acutifolia). The fruit is a bean, flat, leathery, slightly curved, 3–5 cm long, 1.5–2 cm wide. The color of the leaflets ranges from grayish-green (Cassia acutifolia) or yellowish-green (Cassia angustifolia) to brownish-green (Cassia acutifolia, Cassia angustifolia), matte, sometimes the upper and lower sides of the leaves differ in color; fruits – greenish-brown with dark outlines of seed chambers; stems - grayish-green, greenish-brown, yellowish or grayish-white; buds – brownish-green, yellowish-green; flowers - yellow. The smell is weak. The taste of the aqueous extract is slightly bitter, with a mucous sensation.
Crushed raw materials. A mixture of pieces of leaves, petioles, stems, petals, sepals, fruit valves and seeds passing through a sieve with 5 mm holes.
When examined under a magnifying glass (10×) or a stereomicroscope (16×), pieces of leaves are visible, grayish-green, yellowish-green, less often brownish-green, with clearly visible veins and small whitish appressed hairs on both sides; pieces of petioles and stems of grayish-green, greenish-brown, yellowish and grayish-white color; pieces of fruit (bean) valves of greenish-brown, dark brown and yellowish-white color; pieces of seeds with a wrinkled-tortuous surface, usually grayish or yellowish-green in color; glassy pieces of endosperm of a grayish or yellowish color; pieces of corolla petals yellow or light yellow with brownish-purple veins and fragments of a calyx.
The color of the crushed raw materials is grayish-green, light green, yellowish-green or brownish-green with yellow, white and brown inclusions. The smell is weak. The taste of the aqueous extract is slightly bitter, with a mucous sensation.
Powder. A mixture of pieces of leaves, petioles, stems, petals, sepals, fruit valves and seeds passing through a 2 mm sieve.
When examining the powder under a magnifying glass (10×) or a stereomicroscope (16×), pieces of leaves of a grayish-green, yellowish-green, or less often brownish-green color are visible, with clearly visible veins and small whitish appressed hairs on both sides; pieces of petioles and stems of grayish-green, greenish-brown, yellowish and grayish-white color; pieces of fruit (bean) valves of greenish-brown, dark brown and yellowish-white color; pieces of seeds with a wrinkled-tortuous surface, usually grayish or yellowish-green in color; glassy pieces of endosperm of a grayish or yellowish color; pieces of corolla petals yellow or light yellow with brownish-purple veins and fragments of a calyx.
The color of the powder is grayish green, light green or brownish green with flecks of yellowish, whitish, brown and dark brown. The smell is weak. The taste of the aqueous extract is slightly bitter, with a mucous sensation.
Microscopic signs
Whole raw materials, crushed raw materials, powder. When examining micropreparations, the following should be visible: fragments of a leaf blade with an epidermis of polygonal straight-walled cells; stomata are surrounded by 2 (paracytic type) or 3–5 (anomocytic type) epidermal cells; hairs, simple unicellular, thick-walled with a warty surface, usually sickle-shaped, surrounded by a rosette of epidermal cells; in the places where fallen hairs are attached, rounded ridges are visible in the center of the rosette; The crystal-bearing lining is clearly visible along the veins; calcium oxalate drusen are found in mesophyll cells; petals or their fragments with an epidermis of cells with a sinuous outline, difficult to distinguish due to the folded wavy cuticle; stomata of anomocytic type; simple hairs are rare; in the mesophyll, especially closer to the base of the petal, numerous drusen of calcium oxalate are visible; anthers and their fragments with an epidermis of convoluted cells with folded cuticle and mesophyll cells with convoluted porous thickened walls; fragments of the epidermis of fruit valves, consisting of slightly elongated polygonal straight-walled cells with stomata and simple hairs, occasionally vesicular hairs are found; fragments of mesocarp consisting of cross-arranged wavy fibers with a crystalline lining; fragments of the seed coat with an epidermis of columnar cells and cells with sucker-shaped outgrowths; groups of small endosperm cells with oily-granular contents; fragments of petioles and stems - vessels, spiral and reticulate with simple or bordered pores, sclerenchyma fibers with a crystalline lining, parenchyma cells of almost rectangular shape with drusen of calcium oxalate.
Senna leaves
Drawing – Senna leaves. 1 – fragment of the leaf epidermis: a – simple warty hair, b – stomata, c – rounded ridge with a rosette of epidermal cells at the site of hair attachment (200×); 2 – fragment of leaf mesophyll: a – calcium oxalate druse, b – large vein with crystal-bearing lining (200×); 3 – fragment of leaf epidermis: a – paracytic type stomata, b – anomocytic type stomata (200×)
Review of drugs
Due to the fact that you cannot collect senna yourself, since it grows in eastern countries, there is only one way out - to purchase drugs based on it. It is better to do this in pharmacies, where all products are at least certified and are of high quality. If you order products online, you may end up with a counterfeit product. Therefore, treat the selection and purchasing process with maximum responsibility.
- Pills
Names of laxative drugs with senna: Regulax, Senade, Senadexin, Antrasennin, X-Prep, Glaxenna, Regulax, Senalex, Tisaseni, etc. The packages may contain tablets and capsules (30-1,000 pcs.). The maximum dosage is 4 per day. The course is no more than 1 week.
- Dry herb/extract
It is produced in pure form or with small admixtures of other exotic herbs with identical effects. Packaged in paper bags 25-300 g. In this form, senna extract is brewed with boiling water according to a special recipe - a laxative infusion, decoction or tea is obtained. The maximum dosage is no more than 1 glass per day, which can be divided into several parts.
- Tea
It is a powder in filter bags. Recommended dosage - 2 pcs. for 1 glass.
Keep in mind. Preparations based on senna are gradually withdrawn from pharmacy shelves and discontinued. The fact is that an increasing number of studies prove the toxicity of this plant and the undesirable use of its extracts not only as a means for weight loss, but also for the treatment of any other diseases.
