
Important Notice
The medication images on this site are sourced from NHG Health’s internal formulary and are provided solely for identification and educational purposes. They may not represent all available brands, formulations, or packaging of medications registered in Singapore. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure the images accurately reflect the actual medications, colour, shape, and appearance may vary due to manufacturing differences, batch variations, and display settings.
Senna / Sennosides is used to treat constipation. It usually takes 6 to 12 hours to work.
- Take your medicine as prescribed by your healthcare professional.
- You may take this medicine with or without food. This medicine is best taken at bedtime.
- Senna generally causes bowel movement in 6 to 12 hours. Check with your healthcare professional if your symptoms do not go away.
If you forget to take a dose, take it as soon as you remember. Then take your next dose at the usual time. Do not take two doses to make up for the missed dose.
Inform your healthcare professional if:
- You are allergic to this medication or any of the other ingredients of this medication.
- You are pregnant, planning to become pregnant, or breastfeeding.
- You are taking any other medications, including supplements, traditional medications and herbal remedies.
- Inform your healthcare professional if you have either pre-existing and/or a history of bowel obstruction.
Side effects of senna include abdominal cramps, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting.
- If side effects are persistent, please consult your healthcare professional.
The symptoms of a drug allergy include one or more of the following:
- Swollen face/eyes/lips/tongue
- Difficulty in breathing
- Itchy skin rashes over your whole body
If you experience any of these symptoms, you should stop your medicine and see your healthcare professional immediately.
- Seek immediate medical attention should you experience rectal bleeding (including blackened stool) or bloody vomit, or should symptoms persist despite treatment.
Please inform your healthcare professionals if you are taking other medicines including traditional or herbal preparations.
Store in a cool and dry place, away from direct sunlight. Keep this medication away from children.
For general waste: Pack this medicine into a black trash bag and seal it tightly before throwing into the rubbish chute or bin.
Disclaimer
The content of this article does not replace the information from your healthcare professional. Please consult your healthcare professional for more information.
This article is jointly developed by members of the National Medication Information workgroup. The workgroup consists of cluster partners (NHG Health, National University Health System and SingHealth), community pharmacies (Guardian, Unity and Watsons) and Pharmaceutical Society of Singapore (PSS).
The images and video in this article has been developed by the Singapore National Asthma Programme (SNAP) and have been reviewed by the PSS-National Medication Information workgroup.

