Planta Med 2011; 77 - P_10
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1273539

Validation of the Medicinal Plant Centella asiatica (l.) Urb. and Detection of its Possible Substitutes

N Techen 1, VC Joshi 1, CS Rumalla 1, IA Khan 1, 2, 3
  • 1National Center for Natural Products Research, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA
  • 2Department of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA
  • 3Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Centella asiatica (L.) Urb. (Apiaceae/Umbelliferae) is an important medicinal herb used in the Oriental and Indian system of herbal medicine. It has been used extensively in medicinal, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry to improve memory, and for its wound healing properties. It is now becoming increasingly popular in the United States as dietary supplement. It is commonly available and sold as Gotu kola, Asiatic penny, Hydrocotyle or Brahmi. Use of common names in its place of the scientific binomial system of nomenclature often leads to its substitution with totally unrelated species. Bacopa monnieri (L.) is also commonly referred in Ayurvedic medicine as Brahmi and is often interchanged with Centella in traditional preparations.

During our plant collection survey we observed that C. asiatica and C. erecta share similar habitats and grow side by side in North America. Centella asiatica is well represented in the Chinese, German, British Herbal and Indian Pharmacopoeia. Most of the pharmacopeias and regulatory guidelines provide information on the evaluation of Centella asiatica but lack information on how to differentiate it from its possible adulterants such as Hydrocotyle which shares the similar name „Water penny royal“ and looks similar to Centella erecta (L.f) Fern., the most common species in the southern part of USA.. These difficulties were overcome by the use of three techniques, based on gross morphological and anatomical difference, chemical as well as genetic profiling. The three species have been analyzed macro and micro-morphologically, also a comparative HPTLC profile has been provided to easily distinguish the three species.

Acknowledgement: This research is funded by the Food and Drug Administration grant numbers 5U01FD002071–10 and 1U01FD003871–02, and the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Specific Cooperative Agreement No. 58–6408–2-0009.