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Wednesday, February 8

Centella asiatica



English name:

Indian pennywort.

Description:

Small trailing herb. Stems slender, prostrate, rooting at the joints. Leaves alternate or tufted at each node, orbicular, round or kidney-shaped, obviously crenate. Inflorescence in single umbel, bearing 1-5 small flowers, white or reddish, without stalks. Fruit very small, compressed.

Flowering period:

April - June.

Distribution:

Grows wild in wet places.

Parts used:

The whole plant, collected all the year round. It is used fresh or dried.

Chemical composition:

The whole plant contains essential oil, fatty oil consisting of glycerides of oleic, linolic, linolenic, lignoceric, palmitic and stearic acids; an alkaloid: hydrocotyline; a bitter substance: vellarine; a glucoside: asiaticoside that yields asiatic acid and glucose and rhamnose on hydrolysis. It also contains vitamin C.

Therapeutic uses:

The whole plant possesses antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antifebrile, diuretic and galactagogic activity. It is used in the therapy of fever, measles, haematemesis, epistaxis, diarrhoea, dysentery, constipation, leucorrhoea, jaundice, dysuria, furunculosis, dysmenorrhoea and varices. The usual daily dose is 30 to 40g of fresh plant in the form of extracted juice or decoction. External application in the form of poultices is prescribed for contusions, closed fractures, sprains and furunculosis.

Source: Medicinal plants in Viet Nam (Institute of Materia Medica - HANOI - WHO/WPRO, 1990, 444 p.)

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