Peruk
Order:
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Subfamily:
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Genus:
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Species:
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C. asiatica
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Centella asiatica
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Description:
Centella grows in tropical swampy
areas. The stems are slender, creeping stolons, green to reddish-green in
color, connecting plants to each other. It has long-stalked, green, reniform leaves with rounded apices which have
smooth texture with palmately netted veins. The leaves are borne on pericladial
petioles, around 2 cm. The rootstock consists of rhizomes, growing
vertically down. They are creamish in color and covered with root hairs.
The flowers are pinkish to red in color,
born in small, rounded bunches (umbels) near the surface of the soil. Each
flower is partly enclosed in two green bracts. The hermaphrodite flowers are
minute in size (less than 3 mm), with 5-6 corolla lobes per flower. Each flower
bears five stamens and two styles. The
fruit are densely reticulate, distinguishing it from species of Hydrocotyle
which have smooth, ribbed or warty fruit. The crop matures in three months, and
the whole plant, including the roots, is harvested manually.
Uses:
Juice of fresh plant with honey
is given in stomach ulcers, and urinary troubles. Boiled extract of plant is
useful in digestive complaints and dysentery. Powdered leaves are used in skin
diseases.
*The plant is diuretic and tonic.
A glycoside, asiaticoside shown to be active in the treatment of leprosy has
been isolated.
