Cassia occidentalis L.

Quantity of MALARIAL produced by DMT in 2002 is confections of 11 bag of 10 g of powder each (870430 kg for 7.913 confections in 2002).

• Ground powder from 200 F CFA/ Kg (1 Euro = 655 CFA)
• MALARIAL confection 600 F CFA

Wild and also cultivated

Principally the areas of the Region of Koulikoro

Crude material and semi-processed in powder

The plant is cultivated by local healers in Mali.

Shade and sun drying

Not threatened

MALARIAL “Improved Traditional Prescription” produced with Cassia occidentalis leaves powder (MSSPA/DNSP, 1998, MS/INRSP/DMT 2004) used in the treatment of malaria. It is presented as Box of 11 bags of 10 g and given at the dose of 2 bags (10 g) 2 times per day for four days and one bag a day for thee days. For children, the dose is the half of adult.

MALARIAL is a combination of three herbs, Cassia occidentalis (64%), Lippia chevalieri (32%), and Spilanthes oleracea (6%). MALARIAL and its components have been shown to have antiplasmodial activity and treat the symptoms of malaria such as fever.

The plant has been used as natural medicine in many tropical areas. Its roots, leaves, flowers, and seeds have been employed in herbal medicine. In Mali, the leaves are considered as diuretic, against oedema, a decoction is made for malaria, children and pregnant women fevers, yellow fever, headache and in conjunctivitis (Adjanohoun et al., 1985). The seeds are brewed into a coffee-like beverage for asthma, malaria, fevers and stomach complaints.

In Africa the plant is used for abscesses, bile complaints, birth control, bronchitis, bruises, cataracts, constipation, edema, eye infections, fever, headache, increasing perspiration, inflammation, jaundice, kidney infections, leprosy, malaria, pain (kidney), menstrual disorders, rheumatism, ringworms, scabies, skin diseases, sore throat, stomach ulcers, stomachache, swelling, syphilis, tetanus, worms (Dalziel, 1937; Keay, 1958; Kerharo and Adam, 1974; Adjanohoun et al., 1985; Burkill ,1997).

The laxative activity of the various parts of the Senna plant was confirmed by Grote and Woods, 1951. The ethanol extract of C. occidentalis leaves has anti-inflammatory activity at a dose of 2000 mg/kg. It may exert its anti-inflammatory activity by inhibition of phospholipase A2, resulting in the reduced availability of arachidonic acid, a precursor of prostaglandin biosynthesis, by stabilization of the lysosomal membrane system (Sadique et al., 1987). It was demonstrated that C. occidentalis extract has no antidiabetic activity (Swanston-Flatt et al., 1989). C. occidentalis exhibited anti-dermatophyte activity (Caceres et al., 1991; 1993). C. occidentalis showed antibacterial activity against Salmonella typhi (Perez and Anesini, 1994; Evans et al., 2002); and against Bacillus. subtilis and S. aureus (Samy and Ignacimuthu, 2000).

The hepatoprotective effect of aqueous-ethanolic extract of leaves of C. occidentalis was studied on rat liver damage induced by paracetamol and ethyl alcohol by monitoring serum transaminase (aspartate amino transferase and serum alanine amino transferase), alkaline posphatase, serum cholesterol, serum total lipids and histopathological alterations. The extract of leaves of the plant produced significant hepatoprotection (Jafri et al., 1999). Protective effect of C. occidentalis extract on chemical-induced chromosomal aberrations in mice. The results indicated that C. occidentalis was not genotoxic per se and exerted no other toxic signs and symptoms in treated animals (Sharma et al., 1999).

The antimalarial activity of C. occidentalis crude extracts was confirmed. The plant showed more than 60% inhibition of the parasite growth in vitro at a test concentration of 6 microg/ml (Tona et al., 1999; Tona et al., 2001; Tona et al., 2004).

The seeds of Cassia occidentalis are a rich source of galactomannan gum. With a view to utilize the gum for broader applications, carbamoylethylation of C. occidentalis seed gum was carried out with acrylamide in presence of sodium hydroxide under different reaction conditions. The optimum condition for preparing carbamoylethyl C. occidentalis seed gum (%NZ2.57) comprised concentration of acrylamide (0.070 mol), sodium hydroxide (0.125 mol), C. occidentalis seed gum (0.03 mol) at 30° C for 3 h. Rheological properties of carbamoylethyl C. occidentalis seed gum solution showed non-Newtonian pseudo-plastic behavior, relatively high viscosity, cold water solubility and solution clarity vis-a`-vis unmodified C. occidentalis seed gum (Gupta et al., 2005).

Aqueous extracts of C. occidentalis inhibited mutagenicity evaluated using Salmonella typhimurium (Sharma et al., 2000). The aqueous extract at the dose of 100 mg/kg for 14 days modulated hepatic drug metabolizing enzymes. It is suggested that by a similar mechanism, it may be influencing the hematotoxic and immunotoxic responses of cyclophosphamide (Bin-Hafeez et al., 2001).

The in vitro and in vivo studies were carried out on MALARIAL 5 and its different plants. The results demonstrated the efficacy of effects Malarial in treatment of malaria by its antiplasmodial activity in vitro and particularly of Lippia chevalieri and Spilanthes oleracea (Keita et al., 1990; Gasquet et al., 1993).

Chemical constituents: Alkaloids 0.13%

The Cassia plants are well known for a group of chemicals with strong laxative actions called anthraquinones and A bianthraquinone (Anton and Duquenois, 1968; Ginde et al., 1970; Niranjan and Gupta, 1973; Tiwari and Singh, 1977). The ethanolic extract of C. occidentalis leaves yielded the flavonoid glycosides matteucinol 7-rhamnoside (I) and jaceidin 7-rhamnoside (II) (Tiwari and Singh, 1977).

Chysophanol and emodin, both free and their glycosides, and free physcion were found in the leaves, both free and glycosides of rhein and aloe emodin in the roots, and both free and glycosides of chrysophanol and physcion in the seeds of C. occidentalis. Total anthraquinones were higher in this species than in other Cassia species. Anthraquinone contents were higher in the seeds than roots and leaves (Rai and Shok, 1983).

Chemical study of the roots of C. occidentalis from different sites in India indicated that the occurrence of pinselin and 1,7-dihydroxy-3-methylxanthone in this plant may possibly be attributed to further utilization of the abundantly available 1,8-dihydroxyanthraquinone precursor chrysophanol via the intermediate 1,4,5-trihydroxyanthraquinone (helminthosporin) (Wader and Kudav, 1987).

Two new bis (tetrahydro) anthracene derivatives, occidentalol-1 (IIII, R1 = Me and R2 = H) and occidentalol-II (III, R1 = R2 = H) were isolated from the roots of C. occidentalis alongue with chrysophanol, emodin, pinselin, questin, germichrysone, methylgermitorosone and singueanol-I (I, R1 = R2 = Me). The structures were established on the basis of spectral evidence (Susumu et al., 1989).

Three C-glycosidic flavonoids, cassiaoccidentalins A, B and C, were isolated from aerial parts of C. occidentalis and their structures with a 3-keto sugar were established on the basis of spectroscopic and chemical evidence (Tsutomu et al., 1999). While C. occidentalis does contain a small amount of these anthraquinones, it was shown in a rat study not to have the same strong purgative and laxative effects as others Senna. The main plant chemicals in C. occidentalis include: achrosin, aloe-emodin, emodin, anthraquinones, anthrones, apigenin, aurantiobtusin, campesterol, cassiollin, chryso-obtusin, chrysophanic acid, chrysarobin, chrysophanol, chrysoeriol, emodin, essential oils, funiculosin, galactopyranosyl, helminthosporin, islandicin, kaempferol, lignoceric acid, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, mannitol, mannopyranosyl, matteucinol, obtusifolin, obtusin, oleic acid, physcion, quercetin, rhamnosides, rhein, rubrofusarin, sitosterols, tannins, and xanthorin.

Plant has a characteristic odour.

Macroscopic characters: Leaves compound pinnate, leaflets 4-5 pairs, terminal pair largest, broadly lanceolate or ovate, 3.5-10 cm long, 3-4 cm broad, apex acute, gland near base of leaf rachis.

Physicochemical information: Water soluble extractive 28%, total ash 12%, sulphated ash 11% and acid insoluble ash 2%.

Ingestion of large doses of senna laxatives may expose people to the risk of hepatotoxicity (Vanderperren et al., 2005; Borrelli et al., 2005).

Not to be used in case of pregnant women.

Malarial used in the treatment of malaria at the dose of 2 bags (10 g) 2 times per day for four days and one bag per day for thee days. For children, the dose is the half of adult.

Marketing Authorization (AMM= Autorisation de Mise sur le Marché)