Ethnobotany, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicity of Centella asiatica (L.) Urban: A comprehensive review

Abstract

The medicinal plant C. asiatica (L.) Urban, belongs to the family Apiaceae, commonly known as "Pennywort." It is a perennial herb, normally grows in temperate and tropical wetlands. It consists of slender stems; creeping stolons; petiolate, stalked, and rounded leaves with palmately netted veins; pinkish, bisexual flowers and hairy, vertical, rhizomatous rootstock (S. Singh, Gautam, Sharma, & Batra, 2010).It is a slightly aromatic, herbaceous, stoloniferous, prostrate creeper of 12-15 cm in average height. Stem is rounded, glabrous, striated with rooting nodes. Leaves are 2-6 cm  1.5-5 cm in size, orbicularrenniform, glabrous, long petiolate with crenate margin, and sheathing leaf bases. Pinkish white to purple flowers are arranged in facicled umbels. Oblong shaped fruits are approximately 2 inches long with thickened pericarps and having seeds with the laterally compressed pendulous embryo (Prasad et al., 2014; S. Singh et al.). Habit and some morphological features of C. asiatica are presented in Figure 1. Taxonomic hierarchy of C. asiatica (L.

Centella asiatica and Its Metabolite Asiatic Acid: Wound Healing Effects and Therapeutic Potential

“…Centella asiatica (L.) Urban is a small perennial herbaceous plant, belonging to the Apiaceae family and widely spread in the Southeast Asian countries, such Malaysia and Indonesia, where it is commonly known as Gotu kola, mandukparni, Indian pennywort, jalbrahmi and pegaga nyonya [ 25 , 26 ]. It has been used to treat a variety of diseases in asiatic traditional medicine for thousands of years, as suggested by the reports of its presence in the list of medicines of “miracle elixirs of life” and “Sushruta Samhita”, historic medicine texts, dated over 2000 years ago, from traditional Chinese and Indian medicines, respectively [ 17 , 27 ].…”

Unraveling the promise and limitations of CRISPR/Cas system in natural product research: Approaches and challenges

“…Throughout human history, natural products have been studied and used to treat diseases such as cancer, diabetes, obesity, cardiac problems, anxiety, depression, sexual diseases, brain disorders, etc. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] The possibilities for discovering and developing natural products include pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, cosmetics, fine chemicals, and nutraceuticals. [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] To upscale the production of valuable secondary metabolites used in therapy, diet, and industry, many biotechnological interventions have been applied to modulate plant secondary metabolite pathways.…”

Morphological and molecular characterization of bacterial endophytes from Centella asiatica leaves

“…Centella asiatica (L.) Urban (Apiaceae) is one of the most important high-value perennial herb that grows in temperate and tropical wetlands [ 1 ]. It is commonly known as Pennywort or gotu kola and normally grows in tropical wetlands and is native to humid and warmer regions of the hemisphere.…”

“…In South Africa, C. asiatica is traditionally known as Varkoortjies or Waternavel (Afrikaans), Udingu (Xhosa), and Umangobozane or Isgoba (Zulu), and it is mostly found in the wet habitats of the southeastern Karoo, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal regions of South Africa [ 1 , 9 ]. C. asiatica is used as traditional herbal medicine by the indigenous people including traditional healers also known as Sangomas for the treatment of various ailments and diseases.…”