Cassia holly - cassia gostrolista (growing and cultivation)

gostrolista) Cassia acutifolia Del.

Synonyms: senna, Alexandrian leaf.

Description. Semishrub from the leguminous family (Leguminosae) 80110 cm high, up to 2 m in culture. The root is slightly branched, deeply going into the ground, taproot. The stem is strongly branched from the very base above the ground. The leaves are compound of 46 paired, oppositely arranged lanceolate leaflets or leaf lobules. The inflorescence is a raceme emerging from the axils of the leaves. The corolla of the flower consists of five short yellow petals. The fruit is a flat dry pod. Years on transitional plantations in early spring, last year’s stems are removed from the field and harrowed across the rows.

Harvest . They mow with reaping machines, cutting the plants no lower than 30 cm from the soil plane in accordance with the requirements of the State Pharmacopoeia X. Usually, after a month and a half after the first mowing, the overgrown plants bloom again, and then they are mowed a second time. The average yield of raw materials with good care is 1525 c/ha from 2-year-old plantations and up to 3040 c/ha from three-year-old plantations.

Drying. St. John’s wort raw materials are recommended to be dried immediately after harvesting in well-ventilated rooms, in attics under an iron roof, under a canopy, on covered currents or in fire dryers at temperatures up to 5060 ° C. In good weather, you can dry in the open air, but in the shade.

Pack . Raw materials are packed in bales or bales of 5070 kg, greenish-brown in color, slightly curved, within 5 m long and 23 cm wide; seed angular-heart-shaped, convex. Weight 1000 seeds 2030. The flowering period is stretched from June to September; seeds ripen in September October.

Medicinal raw materials: pods and leaves.

biological features. Cassia holly is a warm and light-loving plant. It grows and develops normally at a temperature within 2530 ° C. It reacts sharply negatively to a decrease in temperature: at 10 ° it stops growing, and when it freezes even to 0.30.5 ° C, it already dies.

Habitat. Grows in mountainous areas.

Distribution . It occurs naturally in Africa and South Arabia.

Imported to Europe through Alexandria.

Cultivated in the USSR in the regions of South Kazakhstan and Central Asia under irrigation.

Composition of active substances . The leaves, fruits and stems of cassia holly contain antroglycosides (up to 45%), the main of which are sennoside A, sennoside B, as well as other anthroderivatives rhein, aloe-emodin, flavone glycosides, isorhamnetin and acids (palmitic, stearic, etc.) ( Turova, 1967).

Application. In medicine, a mixture of cassia leaves and pods, which are known in pharmacies as the Alexandrian leaf, is used, and sometimes dry pods as a good laxative, the effect of which begins slowly after 10-12 hours (therefore, cassia products should be taken at night). Cassia leaf is traditionally used to regulate bowel function in chronic atonic constipation to soften stools, hemorrhoids, and constipation during pregnancy. Most often, it is prescribed in the form of an aqueous infusion (1020 g of leaves or pods per glass of water). The pods are gentler and do not cause pain in the intestines. Cassia leaf is also found in compound licorice powder and laxative tea.

Agricultural technology of cultivation . Site selection. For the cultivation of cassia in culture, it is recommended to allocate areas on light loamy soils, sandy loams with good aeration and gray soils with deep groundwater. Heavy clay and loamy soils, which slowly warm up in spring, are completely unsuitable. The best predecessors are row crops, potatoes, sugar beets, corn, etc.

Soil cultivation. At the end of autumn, water-charging irrigations are carried out (along old or newly cut furrows) at the rate of 10001300 m ³ /ha. To obtain full-fledged seedlings, which are traditionally unfriendly on the hillocks due to lack of moisture, and in the lowlands they fall out from a lack of aeration and frequent damage by root rot, the plots must be well planned.

After 47 days, after watering, deep plowing is carried out at 3035 cm with a plow with a skimmer, and as the ridges dry out, they are treated with cultivators and a planner. In early spring, in order to preserve moisture in the soil and promote the early warming of the field, the area is loosened to a depth of 810 cm with flat-shank cultivators, and two weeks before sowing, pre-sowing irrigation is carried out at the rate of 7,001,000 m ³ / ha. After sowing, the field is leveled again with a planner.

Application of fertilizers . To obtain a high yield of cassia, VILR (1967) recommends: apply 2030 t/ha of manure or compost and 3 centners/ha of superphosphate for autumn plowing. During the summer, two top dressings are carried out: one in the branching phase of the plant, and the second before flowering at the rate of ammonium sulfate and superphosphate at 3045 kg/ha of the active substance.

Reproduction . Cassia is propagated by direct sowing of seeds into the ground. Since a significant part of hard seeds (up to 25%) does not swell (and therefore does not germinate), they are separated from soft seeds by soaking, and after drying they are scarified, which significantly increases germination. Sow when the soil warms up well to a temperature of 2122 ° C, which traditionally happens in the southern irrigated regions of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in late April and early May.

Sowing is carried out with a SKON-4.2 seeder equipped with a device for cutting furrows. It is sown in rows with row spacing of 60 cm at a seeding rate of 78. kg/ha and a seeding depth of 34 cm.

Care of plantations consists in loosening row spacing up to 68 cm deep after watering with simultaneous weeding in the rows.

In order to obtain a good leaf yield, in addition to water-recharging and pre-sowing irrigation, it will also be necessary to carry out four or five vegetation irrigations along deep (up to 1215 cm) furrows after 1520 days at a rate of 500700 m ³ /ha. Especially important is the usual soil moisture, a stable water regime from the second half of June to mid-August, since during this period the need for moisture increases in cassia.

Harvest. Cassia leaves are harvested when most of them acquire a bluish tint. This happens around the middle of August. Harvesting is carried out in two or three steps by hand, starting from the lower leaves. After the first collection, which will need to be carried out in four to five days, after about 2025 days, the second one begins, which is completed before the onset of frost, since frost even up to 0.5 ° already worsens the medicinal properties of raw materials. For pharmacies, separate slices of leaves are collected. The total leaf yield is 812 kg/ha.

Growing seeds. To obtain seeds on the farm, special plots are allotted, the area of \u200b\u200bwhich must correspond to 810% of the area of the technical plantation. Sow in a square-nested way (70×70 cm).

Seeds are harvested by hand as they ripen. They are dried in the shade, and then separated from the fruit wings on sieves. Well-sorted seeds are stored in ventilated sheds, etc.

Drying is carried out in the sun or in the shade on racks or tarpaulins, spreading a thin layer up to 2 cm. You can also dry in a well-ventilated shed, under a canopy (although the drying process slows down, but the quality of the raw materials is better). According to the state of fragility of the middle vein of the leaf, the end of drying is determined. Finished leaves are sorted: fruits and impurities of leaf fragments are removed, as well as browned leaves: dust is separated through a sieve with holes with a diameter of 25 mm.

Pack. In warehouses, raw materials are kept in bales, in pharmacies in closed wooden or tin boxes.

Store in a dry, well-ventilated area.

quality requirements. The raw material consists of a mass of individual leaves. In accordance with the State Pharmacopoeia X, the leaflets should have a length of 13 cm, a width of 0.41.2 cm. The leaflets are yellowish-green above, grayish-green below. The smell is weak, peculiar, the taste is bitter. Allowed: moisture 12%; ash 12; brown and yellowed leaves 0.5; crushed leaves passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 1 mm,one; stems, flowers and organic impurities 1.5; mineral impurities 0.5%.