Cassia tora

Cassia tora is a dicot legume known as sickle senna, sickle pod, tora, coffee pod, tovara, chakvad and foetid cassia. It is mostly found in South-East Asia and the South West Pacific as an important weed. It is considered a wild weed, wild peanut or pistache that has many healing benefits. The plant is an herbaceous annual foetid herb. The plant can grow 30–90 centimetres (12–35 in) tall and consists of alternative pinnate leaves with leaflets mostly with three opposite pairs that are obovate in shape with a rounded tip. The leaves grow up to 3–4.5 centimeters long. The stems have distinct smelling foliage when young. The flowers are in pairs in axils of leaves with five petals and pale yellow in colour. Cassia tora yellow flowers occur in pairs with stamens of unequal length producing pods that are somewhat flattened or four angled, 10–15 cm long and sickle shaped, hence the common name sickle pod. There are 30–50 seeds within a pod. The seeds, roots and leaves from this plant has been shown to be very beneficial to the modern system of herbal medicines.