Chaksu Tincture & Alcohol-Free Extract

Chaksu (Cassia absus, now classified as Chamaecrista absus), the pig's senna or four-leaved senna, is a sticky, hairy annual of the pea family, Fabaceae, native to the Old World tropics from Africa and the Arabian Peninsula through India to Southeast Asia and northern Australia. It grows 30 to 60 centimeters with erect, clammy stems covered in glandular hairs, leaves made of just two pairs of oval leaflets, and small, orange-yellow to reddish flowers in short racemes. The flat, hairy pods, 3 to 5 centimeters long, hold four to seven hard, glossy, blackish-brown, flattened seeds about 4 millimeters across that are bitter to the taste. We extract the dried seed.