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Centella
asiatica (L.) Urban
Standardized Common
Name: Gotu
Kola
Other Common Names: Asiatic Pennywort,
Hydrocotyle, Indian Pennywort, Marsh Pepperwort, Water Pennywort
Family: Apiaceae
(Umbelliferae)
Taxonomy: Centella
includes about 40 species, most of which are restricted to South Africa. Centella
asiatica is widely distributed in warm damp habitats. The basionym is Hydrocotyle
asiatica L.; several obsolete synonyms exist. Populations native to North
America are segregated by some authors as C. erecta (L. f.) Fernald.
Description: Perennial creeping
herb. Stolons or rhizomes slender, rooting at nodes, often reddish. Leaves
clustered, usually 2–5 per node or rarely single, without stipules; petioles
thin, erect, 2–15(–30) cm long, broadened and sheathing at base, grooved,
glabrous or pubescent, often reddish. Leaves reniform to orbicular or ovate,
1.5–6(–10) cm long, 1.5–6(–8) cm broad, fleshy; margins crenate or shallowly
lobed to shallowly dentate or entire; base deeply cordate to truncate; apex
obtuse or rounded; blade glabrous or softly pubescent. Inflorescence a simple
umbel, (1–)3–9-flowered, subtended by 2 ovate bracts; peduncle <1–4(–10) cm
long, filiform, pubescent; pedicels very short or absent. Flowers minute;
petals 5, to 1 mm long, white or reddish, deciduous; stamens 5; ovary
2-carpellate. Fruit 2 mericarps, orbicular to ellipsoid, 1.5–4 mm long, 2–4(–5)
mm broad, laterally flattened, with 7–9 reticulated ribs.
Parts
in Commerce:
Vegetative portions
Identification:
- Stems thin,
trailing, reddish
- Roots and
clustered leaves arising from each stem node
- Roots straight,
whitish, to several cm long, rarely branching
- Petioles long,
thin, grooved; sometimes hairy, especially in North American material,
with pubescence varying within individuals
- Petiole bases
widened and sheathing; separate stipules not present
- Leaf blade
reniform, round, or ovate, with cordate to truncate base and obtuse to
rounded apex
- Leaf margins
crenate or shallowly lobed to shallowly dentate or nearly entire near apex
- Leaves fleshy,
hairless or bearing some long, unbranched hairs
- Venation
palmate, more or less dichotomously branching, occasionally reticulating
in outer portion of leaf; often faint on upper surface
- Odor aromatic
- Taste spicy, slightly
bitter and sweetish
Adulterants: Most species of Centella, outside the C. asiatica complex,
are of limited distribution and not liable to be found in commerce. C.
asiatica could potentially be confused with species of the closely related
genus Hydrocotyle, which can be distinguished by its vegetative
features:
- Leaves peltate in some species
- Leaves usually one per node rather than clustered
- Separate stipules visible below the petioles
- Petiole bases not sheathing
Both C. asiatica and the completely unrelated
Bacopa monnieri (L.) Pennell (Bacopa) are called Brahmi in Ayurvedic
medicine, and the two might be confused as a result. Bacopa monnieri is
also a fleshy creeping herb, but the leaves are narrowly elliptical to oblong
with mostly entire margins and nearly invisible venation.
References:
Huq AM, Mahfuzur Rahman M. Hydrocotylaceae. In:
Salar Khan MD, Matiur Rahman M, eds. Flora of Bangladesh no. 44. Dhaka,
Bangladesh: Bangladesh National Herbarium, Bangladesh Agricultural Research
Council; 1990.
Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association. Indian
Herbal Pharmacopoeia. Revised New Edition 2002. Mumbai, India: Indian Drug
Manufacturers’ Association; 2002.
Radford AE, Ahles HE, Bell CR. Manual of the
Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North
Carolina Press; 1968.
Rouillard Guellec F, Robin JR, Rakoto Ratsimamanga
A, Ratsimamanga S, Rasaoanaivo P. Etude comparative de Centella asiatica
d’origine malgache et d’origine indienne. Acta Bot Gallica. 1997 [publ.
1998];144:489–493.
Wichtl M, ed. Herbal Drugs and
Phytopharmaceuticals, 3rd English
ed. Stuttgart: medpharm Scientific Publishers and Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press;
2004:659.
World Health
Organization. WHO Monographs on Selected Medicinal Plants. Vol. 1 Geneva: World Health Organization;
1999–2002:77–85.
Figure 17: Centella asiatica.
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