# Lenitive electuary

**Elettuario lenitivo**

**Known today as.** A mild compound laxative paste of the Galenic pharmacopoeia, typically of senna, polypody, tamarind, cassia pulp, prunes, raisins, and violets, made up with sugar.

Kind: Compound  
Poisoning: The anthranoid purgatives (https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/poisons/anthranoid)

## What did Canale use it for?

Among the light purges with which the cure begins: for the choleric with syrup of roses, in a draught taken at dawn, and for the phlegmatic with honey of roses (ch. 2).

## What does modern science say?

Its senna made it a genuine laxative: senna leaf has a European Union monograph for the short-term treatment of occasional constipation. Culpeper says it “gently opens and mollifies the bowels.”

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **sennosides**: the senna
- **cassia pulp and tamarind**: 
- **prunes, raisins, jujubes, sebestens**: the fruits
- **polypody, violet, liquorice**: 
- **sugar**: 

**Mechanism.** The senna is the laxative: its sennosides pass unabsorbed to the large intestine, where bacteria turn them into rhein anthrone, which quickens the colon and draws water and salts into it, so that the bowels move some eight to twelve hours later. Canale starts his choleric and phlegmatic patients with it.

**Dose.** Culpeper allows a man of reasonable strength an ounce at bedtime; senna is not to be taken for more than a week, and in high doses for too long it has injured the liver.

**Standing.** Senna leaf has a European Union monograph as a laxative for occasional constipation.

## Sources

- EMA/HMPC (2020). *European Union herbal monograph on Senna alexandrina Mill., folium* (EMA/HMPC/625849/2015).
- Culpeper, N. (1653). *Pharmacopoeia Londinensis*, “Electuarium Lenitivum.”

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*Lenitive electuary.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-03. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lenitive-electuary

Historical description, not medical advice.