Witnessed by: Unani
Chaksu (Senna absus), of the Fabaceae (Caesalpinioideae) family. Small erect sticky-hairy annual herb with two pairs of leaflets, bearing short flat pods; native range: tropical Africa and India, a weed of dry waste ground, roadsides and fallow field, now through the warm world. Globally recognized as cakṣuṣyā in Sanskrit, chaksu, chimad in Hindi, chaksu in Urdu, and four-leaved senna, jasmeejaz in English. The part used is seed. Small, flattened, hard, glossy black-brown seeds, near odourless, bitter and acrid on the tongue.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
CHAKSU
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- chaksu
- Scientific name
- Senna absus (L.) Roxb.
- Family
- Fabaceae (Caesalpinioideae)
Form
- Part used
- seed
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Unani
- bitter · acrid
Temperature
- Unani
- hot & dry (2nd degree)
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- Unani
- eye
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Unani
- jali (detergent, it scours the eye), qabiz (astringent), mujaffif (desiccant), daf-e-waram (resolves inflammation), habis-ud-dam (styptic)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- hot temperaments and hot inflamed conditions; only the impalpably levigated powder goes near the eye — a coarse powder abrades it
- Toxicity
- a mild irritant; the powder stings on application. Low toxicity at the customary dose
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