Medicinal Herbs

Gotu Kola Extract

Centella asiatica

Gotu kola (Centella asiatica) is a low creeping herb that roots at its joints and sends up slender, smooth stalks, each holding one rounded leaf with a scalloped edge, two to four centimetres across. Its tiny flowers, one to five together, sit in the leaf axils; the small fruit is flattened and faintly ribbed. It grows wild everywhere in Vietnam and across the tropics in Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia and India, gathered all year round. Fresh, the whole plant is bitter and sharply pungent; dried, it smells simply of hay. It is eaten as a green, raw or boiled or dressed with oil and vinegar, and crushed for juice.