Centella asiatica (L.) is a polymorphous, creeping plant, rooting at nodes, with sometimes significant tap root, cylindrical and glabrous stems. Other names of centella asiatica include Hydrocotyle asiatica, gotu kola, Indian pennywort(English), Mandukaparni(India), pegaga(Malaysia) and Di Chien Tsao, Man Tien Hsing and Zhi Xue Cao (China). This plant is indigenous to the warmer regions of both hemispheres, especially abundant in the swampy areas of India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka up to an altitude of approximately 700 metres.
Centella asiatica is also indigenous to China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Western South Sea Islands, Australia, Madagascar, Southern and Middle Africa, Southern United States and in insular and continental tropical America.
Traditionally, in Madagascar and East Africa, this plant, dried and crushed, has been used in the treatment of leprosy, bronchitis, asthma, syphilis, and as a wound healing agent. The Indian however, traditionally regard this plant as a potent brain tonic and shows remarkable properties in terms of treating senile decay and loss of memory, whilst it is also alleged to enhance verbal articulation. In Chinese folk medicine, a decoction of this herb is used for the treatment of colds, sunstroke, tonsilitis, pleurisy, urinary tract infections, infectious hepatitis, jaundice, and dysentery; as an antidote for arsenic poisoning, toxic mushroom and as an external poultice for snake bites, scabies, traumatic injuries, and herpes zoster. Sometimes considered as a sedative, this plant has been known to be tonic in Malaysia. Today Centella asiatica is the active ingredient of many drugs and cosmetic preparations in Europe, U.S.A. and Japan in the field of skin care.
Source: IDS(Sabah), 1998 in ‘Developing the Non-Timber Forest Products in Sabah: Issues and Challenges’.
No comments:
Post a Comment