Senna extract (Sennosides)

Senna extract is made from the dried leaflets, and on request the pods, of Senna alexandrina Mill. — the species Indian trade still calls Cassia angustifolia Vahl, and which reaches the market as Tinnevelly senna. India is the dominant origin: the crop is grown in the Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Virudhunagar districts of Tamil Nadu and around Jodhpur in Rajasthan, and the leaf is graded and baled before it ever reaches an extraction plant. The actives are the dianthrone glycosides sennosides A and B (both C42H38O20, MW 862.74), accompanied by sennosides C and D. Thovek standardises on sennosides A and B expressed as sennoside B, the basis every pharmacopoeial method uses. Grade choice is driven by what the buyer is compressing or filling. The 6% and 8% grades sit close to a concentrated leaf and carry the native matrix, which suits herbal tea blends and Ayurvedic proprietary formats. The 20% and 40% grades are the workhorses for tablets and two-piece capsules, where dose uniformity at a low fill weight matters. Where a monograph-style extract is wanted, Thovek can hold the Ph. Eur. window for standardised senna leaf dry extract — 5.5 to 8.0 per cent hydroxyanthracene glycosides as sennoside B, produced with 50 to 80 per cent v/v ethanol. Beyond that sits a different product class: purified calcium sennosides sold at 60 per cent and above against the USP Sennosides monograph, which is an isolated salt rather than an extract and is quoted separately. Two commercial points travel with this material. First, the raw material is a leaf crop, so native sennoside content moves lot to lot with harvest timing and drying — Thovek blends to the ordered assay and issues an HPLC chromatogram with every lot. Second, the European regulatory picture has moved: Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/468 placed preparations from Cassia senna leaf and fruit containing hydroxyanthracene derivatives under Union scrutiny in Annex III Part C of Regulation (EC) 1925/2006, and the EU General Court annulled those entries on 13 November 2024 in the Aboca line of cases (T-302/21 and related), leaving only the danthron entry standing. EU and UK buyers should confirm the position applying to their finished format before contracting. Thovek supplies the ingredient and its analytical dossier; permitted claims and finished-product classification remain the brand owner's responsibility.