Medicine
highHill evaluates senna as a purge, saying common senna is worth more than the older myrobalan purgatives listed nearby.
Found in the Hermetikon archive
Senna
Senna alexandrina
Senna appears in Hermetikon as an archive-backed plant entry, with references across historical medical, magical, symbolic, and ritual contexts where the source texts support them.
- Risk
- moderate
- Books
- 18
- Contexts
- 4
- Mentions
- 128
Archive Profile
Identity, safety, and search aliases used to connect this herb to the archive.
Herb identity
- Common name
- senna
- Latin name
- Senna alexandrina(ambiguous)
- Identity note
- Archive medicine texts may use senna as a purgative.
Safety
moderate
Stimulant laxative use has dose, duration, pregnancy, electrolyte, and medication cautions.
Historical archive citations are not medical advice. Use modern clinical and poison-control sources for ingestion, dosage, pregnancy, and toxicity questions.
- MedlinePlus: Stimulant laxative use has dose, duration, pregnancy, electrolyte, and medication cautions.
Aliases
sennaCassia sennaSenna alexandrina
Senna in Historical Sources
Curated archive synthesis of recurring uses, recipes, rituals, and interpretive problems.
Hermetikon's curated reading of Senna (Senna alexandrina) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 2 preparation or ritual-use entries. The strongest recurring contexts are medicine and safety. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.
Medicine
highBurton places powder of senna among lenitives for melancholy-related regimen, alongside preserved prunes, electuaries, and pills.
Safety
mediumRedgrove treats senna as a mild laxative for constipation, but the passage is modern vitalist medicine rather than occult plant lore.
The White Spark | H. Stanley Redgrove | 1912
Part of the English Divine's Article Which We Have Referred to:
Preparations and ritual uses
Compound decoction
highCulpeper boils senna with myrobalans, stoechas, raisins, epithyme, fumitory, polypody, turbith, whey, and added purgatives in a compound preparation.
Lenitive powder
highBurton places powder of senna among lenitives and electuaries used before meals in his melancholy regimen.
Senna Archive Contexts
Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.
Medicine
3 passages across 3 books; strongest source: Manual of Astrology.
Matched as senna; high confidence.
Astrology
4 passages across 4 books; strongest source: Error's Chains.
Matched as senna; high confidence.
Folk magic
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: Encyclopaedia of Antiquities.
Matched as senna; high confidence.
Preparation
3 passages across 3 books; strongest source: Anatomy of Melancholy.
Matched as senna; high confidence.
Senna Cited Excerpts
Representative public passages with the herb mention highlighted and linked to archive source material.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper
1653
"...*College.*] Take of Myrobalans, Chebs, and Inds, of each half an ounce, Stœchas, Raisins of the sun stoned, Epithimum, Senna, of each one ounce, Fumitory half an ounce, Maudlin five drams, Polipodium six drams, Turbith half an ounce, Whey made with Goat’s milk, or Heifer’s milk four pounds, let them all boil to two pounds, the Epithimum excepted, which boil but a second or two, then take it from the fire, and add black Hellebore one dram and an half, Agerick half a dram, Sal. Gem. one dram and an half, steep them ten hours, then press it strongly out. *C..."
Chapter 56Open in Reader
Preparationalias: sennahigh confidence
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter
1854
"...o.vicodendron 1988 saffron 1958 sun>;uinaria 1!>83 compound acetated . . . 1984 saturated 1S»41 savin I!t83 senega 1985 senna 1985 compound 1985 serpenUiria 1985 compound 1986 sliecp laurel 190!t simple lim skunk-cabbage 1988 soap bark 1874, 1981 camphorated 1142 Spanish Hies li)49 spearmint 1974 squill 1984 St. Ignatius bean 19()7 St. John s wort liK>7 staphisagria 1986 stavesacre 198<> stillingia I!t86 compound 1144 stomachic UMA stramonium seed 1!»86 strophanthus 1987 strvchnine compound . . . 1976 sudorific 1986 sumbul 1987 .symplocarpus 1988 tamarac, con..."
Page 1337Open in Reader
Astrologyalias: sennahigh confidence
The Family Herbal
John Hill
1755
"...poses. They were called the citrine, chebule, belleric, and emblec myrobalanus; they are all used as purges, but common senna is worth them all. ### MOONWORT. *Lunaria.* A VERY singular, and very pretty plant, frequent in some parts of the kingdom, but in most very scarce. It grows six inches high; and consists of the stalk, one leaf, and the flowers. The stalk is round, firm, and thick. It is naked to the middle, and there grows the leaf, which is composed as it were of several pairs of small ones, or rather is a whole and single leaf divided deeply, so as t..."
Page 284Open in Reader
Astrologyalias: sennahigh confidence
Error's Chains
Frank S. Dobbins
1883
"...e olives in the Garden of Gethsemane were full grown when the Saracens were expelled from Jerusalem; and the Cypress of Senna, in Lombardy, is said to have been a tree in the time of Julius Cæsar; yet the Bo-tree is older than the oldest of these by a century, and would almost seem to verify the prophecy pronounced when it was planted, that it would flourish and be green forever.†To which Rhys-David adds: “The tree could scarcely have lived so long had it not been for the constant care of the monks. As it showed signs of decay terraces were bu..."
CHAPTER XXIX. BUDDHISM IN INDIA AND CEYLON.Open in Reader
Astrologyalias: sennahigh confidence
Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton
1621
"...this, or in any other of the three species, it is to be corrected with suppositories, clysters, or lenitives, powder of Senna, condite [or preserved] Prunes, &c. Make lenitive electuaries of jutce of roses f each i ounce. Take as much as a Nutmeg at a time, half an hour before dinner or .supper, or Mastic pills, i oz. in 6 pills, a pill or two at a time See more in Montanus, Hildesheim. P. Cnemander and Montanus commend Cyprian Turpentine, which they would have familiarly taken, to the quantity of a small Nut, two or three hours before dinner and supper, twic..."
Page 623Open in Reader
Preparationalias: sennahigh confidence
Books Mentioning Senna
Complete public source inventory, placed after the interpretive reading so the page opens with the most useful synthesis first.
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854
senna
62 mentionscited
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper | 1653
senna
23 mentionscited
Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton | 1621
senna
19 mentionscited
Error's Chains
Frank S. Dobbins | 1883
senna
3 mentionscited
The Family Herbal
John Hill | 1755
senna
2 mentionscited
Star Names
Richard Hinckley Allen | 1899
senna
2 mentions
Manual of Astrology
Raphael (Robert Cross Smith) | 1828
senna
2 mentions
Popular Superstitions, and the Truths Contained Therein
Herbert Mayo | 1851
senna
2 mentions
Origin of Man and Superstitions
Carveth Read | 1920
senna
2 mentions
Eulis! The History of Love
Paschal Beverly Randolph | 1874
senna
2 mentions
Extraordinary Popular Delusions
Charles Mackay | 1841
senna
2 mentions
Thaumaturgia
Richard Harris Dalton Barham | 1835
senna
1 mention
Encyclopaedia of Antiquities
Thomas Dudley Fosbroke | 1825
senna
1 mention
The White Spark
H. Stanley Redgrove | 1912
senna
1 mention
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1918
senna
1 mention
Teutonic Mythology, Vol. 2
Viktor Rydberg | 1889
senna
1 mention
Teutonic Mythology (Vol 3)
Viktor Rydberg | 1889
senna
1 mention
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1913
senna
1 mention