Properties
The main components of Senna are glycosides hydroxyanthracene (sennodsidi A and B). The glycosides act as pro-medicine as to act they must be activated, or metabolised, by the intestinal bacteria flora that hydrolyse them liberating the aglycones turns them into its active form, the anthrones. The metabolism takes place in the colon after the anthraquinone glycoside, administered orally, transits unchanged in the stomach and small intestine. At this level sugar is eliminated (D-glucose or L-rhamnose) and the active molecule is freed which acts by stimulating the cells of the colonic mucosa both in terms of motility and secretion, thus playing the laxative action.
Nutraceuticals
- 2-5% Hydroxyanthracene glycosides (sennosides A and B majoritarian)
* In the fruits are concentrated at the level of the pericarp; the seeds are considered irritating and thus often eliminated from the medicine.
- flavonoids, mucilage (10%), pinnitolo (polyol), acidic polysaccharides, 10-12% of mineral substances, naphthalene derivatives